cipolline in agrodolce

I promised you I had one more Roman peasant dish to tell you about, and here it is. Sweet and sour onions, or, in the mother tongue, cipolline in agrodolce. Agrodolce, according to wikipedia, is just a sweet and sour sauce-- the sweet "dolce" component usually being sugar and the sour "agro" element being some sort of vinegar. If you'll recall, we first made an agrodolce sauce for pork chops, using honey and balsamic. Here, it was balsamic and sugar.

Even with the fancy sounding name, an agrodolce sauce is actually really easy to make, and the most difficult part of cooking this recipe is peeling all the little cipollinis. It's not hard per say, just time consuming and a definite pain in the ass. Before you start peeling away, throw your raisins in some hot water so that they'll rehydrate and get nice and plump.

roasted tomatoes and cipollini onions with cannellini beans

a bright and juicy tomato dish

It just so happens that three of my favorite things are tomatoes, cannellini beans and basil. Mmmmm. Leave it, of course, to smitten kitchen to feature a recipe that features all three of these things, and then watch as I run to the nearest supermarket for fresh basil and canned beans.

This is hearty and filling for a meatless meal, and is a great way to showcase the late season tomatoes still gracing us with their presence here on the East Coast. After last year's debilitating tomato blight, we've really been spoiled with all the beautiful tomatoes in 2010.

Simply roast the tomatoes and peeled onions with olive oil, salt and pepper for 45 minutes at 375˚. Serve with shredded basil, cannellini beans, grated romano cheese and toasted Italian bread– unless your broken jaw can't deal with crispy bread in which case you'll just have to lick your plate or let all those lovely tomato juices go to waste.

Damn. I want to make this again with lovely bread from Madonia now that I can actually chew. So delicious!