Onion soup is a tasty first course from the French tradition. Spring is peeking out but cold days are still ahead. Warm, soft and satisfying on cold days.

Why not comfort yourself with a nice onion soup straight from France? Here is my favourite recipe for you. A dish that is just as good as it is beautiful and perfect to cook on Ghisanativa which releases and retains heat perfectly.

Ingredients

• 1.2 kg golden or white onions
• 1.2 l meat stock
• 18 g toasted flour
• oil and butter to taste
• cognac or brandy to taste
• salt
• grated Parmesan cheese
• gruyère cheese
• slices of toasted homemade bread
• 4 oven-proof bowls

Preparation methodology

Toast the flour on Ghisanativa. When you toast the flour, bring the pan to heat and add the flour as you go. The flour will brown immediately and quickly. Cut the onions into julienne, heat a little oil and butter – or just oil or just butter, as you prefer.

Then brown the onions on Ghisanativa.

Deglaze with a little cognac -or brandy- and then sprinkle with the flour you have previously toasted.

Add the hot stock and simmer for at least 30 minutes.

When your soup has taken on a creamy appearance, take the single-portion bowls, put a slice of bread well covered with Gruyère cheese on the bottom (for bread I recommend a crouton bread); pour the onion soup on top, sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese and bake au gratin in the oven.

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Variation:

If you don’t have meat stock, you can use vegetable stock or – desperate times call for desperate measures: use a stock cube – whichever you prefer. I recommend making the stock cube at home.

Cognac may not be used, but in my opinion, it gives it a very pleasant nuance of flavour.

As for the bread croutons, you can also make two: one to put on the bottom of the soup and one to gratin and eat separately. This is what I did!

Michela Oppo

“Cooking teacher, Venetian by adoption, born and lived until the age of 18 in the city of La Spezia from a Sardinian father and a Ligurian mother, from La Spezia to be precise, with a little Piedmontese blood. I left pieces of my heart in Shanghai, Buenos Aires and London. There are many reasons why I cook, to feed and to nourish myself of course, but I think I cook above all for love, for love of my loved ones and why not, to be loved in turn. I love the tango, the sea, books that make you dream, ceramics, fans, languages and… cooking and baking of course!”

This recipe was prepared on