Put them on medium heat, and cook, stirring until they turn transparent.

Then, sprinkle with salt–how much depends on how many onions you are cooking. But the salt is the key–not only does it season your final dish, it pulls the liquid out of the onions, and helps it boil away.

It is only when most of the moisture is gone from the onions, that they sugars in them will caramelize, turning golden, then brown, then reddish. Once the onions are a brown, you can add the other ingredients and continue cooking.

Eggplant and squash both have a lot of moisture. If you cook them with the onions at the same time, the onions will never get dry enough to caramelize.

My local Farmers Market was exploding with bounty today and I thought of this post. I bought up some necesarry provisions and tried this recipe out. I altered it by adding baby eggplants, summer squash, and I used Qunioa elbows instead of penne. I also had a field mix salad that included edible flowers and I tossed it with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar. All in all it was super tasty and I thank you for the recipe.

Unfortunately I didn’t get the onions to caremelize AT ALL. This was probably because I was trying to cook them at the same time as the squash and eggplant, but then I’ve never been able to carmelize onions very succesfully. Shrug.

Lea–I wish we could support an every day farmer’s market! But, I think that Americans are not used to marketing every day for fresh produce the way the Chinese and Europeans are, so it wouldn’t work here. What a shame, huh? We wouldn’t need such big refrigerators if we shopped every day–but on the other hand, I cannot imagine most Americans taking that kind of time every day, either.

Sigh. Too bad, too.

Risingsun–I love the market and have to go at least once a week, but in the summer, it is almost always twice a week! Caramelized onions give a lot of flavor to pasta–you can do a great pasta sauce with caramelized onions and sauteed mushrooms as the base. You could add some cheese or cream and sherry–and it would be great on its own. Or, add a bit of prosciutto, bacon or pancetta for a bit of protein and to make it even richer in flavor.