French Onion Meatballs

If there is a French Onion soup on a menu, I’m ordering it! I love love love French Onion soup. The cheese, the soaked bread, the rich broth and the sweet onions, I mean, what’s not to like?

Funny fact: I have never ever made french onion soup myself! I know, it’s weird, something I love so much it should be a no brainer to make sure I know how to make it. However, I like knowing not knowing how to make it. It doesn’t sound like it makes sense but hear me out. When you learn to make something you love to eat, you decipher the secrets behind the recipe. It’s not that it loses its magic, but it does. A magicians’ tricks aren’t as impressive once you know how they do it, am I right? That’s how I feel about learning how to make French Onion Soup. Sue me. Ha!

Even though I don’t know how to make it, it doesn’t mean I can’t play with it’s flavors right? That is how this incredible dish was born, completely out of the love for French Onion Soup.

Okay, enough reading, let’s get to it.

How I make these French Onion Meatballs:

The vision for this recipe came to me because I envisioned how the onions were going to look in the pictures. I wanted perfectly caramelized, yet intact onion slices showing off the rings. Just like such:

If ramequins are not accesible, a large muffin tin will work the same. However, when un-molding the meatballs, the onions will might split and will not show the rings perfectly arranged.

Preheat the oven to 350º.

Start by slicing the onions into 1/2 inch thick slices.

Tip! Cut the ends of the onion first and peel away the skin layers with your hands.

In a large pan heated to medium high heat, melt 1 tablespoon of butter a drizzle of olive oil and place the onions flat to start cooking. Season the onions with salt and pepper.

Saute the onions for 2-3 minutes per side. Make sure that when they are flipped the rings remain in position as much as possible.

Tip! The rings tend to pop up out of position as they are cooking but use a soft spatula and press them down and keep them in place. Show them who’s boss LOL

Once the onions have been cooked on both sides, pour 1/2 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar in the bottom of each ramequin.

Tip! The balsamic vinegar will help in creating depth of flavor and the look of a slow cooked caramelized onions.

Place an onion disk into each ramequin. Try to match the size of the the disk to the ramequin if using different sizes.

To make the meatball mixture:

In a large bowl combine the egg, breadcrumbs chili flakes, garlic powder, dried tarragon, ricotta cheese and season with salt and pepper. Mix all the ingredients well as to create a paste.

Once the paste has been formed, add the meat to the mixture and combine well.

Tip! I like using my hands to mix this. It makes it easier to evenly mix in the breadcrumb mixture with the meat.

After the breadcrumb mixture and the meat are well combined, split the mixture in half. Then in half again and in half once more. This should give you 8 pretty evenly sized meatballs.

Create an assembly line to make the process easier.

Have the sliced bread and the grated cheese next to the ramequins and meat mixture.

Add a meatball on top of each onion disk.

Grab a slice of baguette and tear it a bit and pack it down it into the meatball. Try To fit the bread into the meat.

Tip! It helps to rip the middle of the bread and let meatball mixture sort of peak through it.

Add 2 tablespoons of the shredded gruyere cheese on top of each meatball and pack down the cheese into the bread.

Place the ramequins on top of a large baking sheet.

Bake for 20 minutes until the top is golden and delicious. If need be, finish baking the ramequins on broil for 2-3 minutes to help get the cheese get melted and golden on top.

Tip! Keep a close eye as they can go from golden to burnt quickly while on broil.

Once the top of the cheese is golden and melted remove from the oven. It should look kind of what a crock of French Onion Soup would look like.

Flip each ramequin onto a plate. The onion disk should now be on top with the meatball beneath it siting on top of the bread and cheese crouton.

This is the stuff dreams are made of.

Enjoy this spectacular dish as a large appetizer or as a main dish.

Tip! If served as a main dish, I recommend serving it with a simple salad on the side or roast veggies.

Enjoy!