This brown butter pasta with caramelised onions is sweet, nutty, packed with flavour and blended to make the most delicious sauce. It is so rich and tasty, it’s one of those pastas you eat once and then can’t get out of your head for a long time. Then you’ll want to make it again and again.
The Brown Butter & Caramelised Onion Sauce
As the name suggests, the two main ingredients are onions and butter. Together, the sweet caramelised onions and the toasty nutty brown butter are blended together, then tossed through pasta with eggs and cheese. It is so delicious.
Because the butter is melted and browned and then blitzed into the sauce, this dish doesn't feel heavy and buttery. Instead it's glossy and luxurious. Honestly this is a killer combo that you need to try. I love using egg yolks to make my pasta sauces really gorgeous and creamy. Kind of a similar technique to carbonara but of course, this isn’t carbonara, but adding the egg yolks just results in the most silky sauces. I always whisk the egg yolks with a some cheese and then temper them with a little of the pasta cooking water before adding to the pasta and sauce. This works even with a simple tomato sauce - give it a go and you'll be amazed!
Frequently Asked Questions
Don’t skip this step or be tempted to turn up the heat to make it go faster. It does take a bit of time but it creates the best flavour. Just keep the heat low in your pan and cook with some olive oil and salt. Stir every so often and then will soften. It does take a good 20 minutes.
Brown butter is melted butter that has been taken just past the point of melted to “brown it”. When you melt butter, you tend to get a separation of the milk solids (the white specks) and the yellow liquid, the butterfat. When you brown the butter, you toast the milk solids so they turn a golden brown which gives the whole thing a nutty flavour. You also see this method in baking, like in this chocolate chip cookie skillet.
Other pasta recipes you might like
Very Green Pasta full of veggies
PrintBrown Butter Pasta With Caramelised Onions
Blending the caramelised onions with the brown butter results in a smooth glossy sauce which coats each strand of pasta. So so good.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: Serves 2
- Diet: Vegetarian
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 large onions, finely sliced
- generous pinch of Maldon salt
- 100g butter
- 200g pasta (I love linguine or spaghetti with this but also v good with rigatoni)
- 2 egg yolks
- 60g Parmesan
- juice of ½ lemon
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Start by softening the onions in a little olive oil. Season generously with Maldon salt and cook on a low heat until they are lovely and caramelised. Low and slow is the key and it will take about 20 mins so be patient - I promise it’s worth it!
- Meanwhile brown the butter in a pan on a medium heat. It will go from melted, to very loud and bubbly and then quiet and foamy. Keep stirring until it turns a light amber colour and smells of roasting chestnuts. Brown butter is lovely, burnt butter not so much - so don’t let it burn and pour it into a heatproof bowl once golden to stop the cooking process.
- Cook the pasta in salted boiling water
- In a bowl mix together the egg yolks, Parmesan and lemon juice and then season well with black pepper. Add a little of the hot pasta cooking water to this mixture to temper it. Stir well.
- Add the brown butter, caramelised onions and a splash of pasta cooking water to a blender and blitz until lovely and creamy.
- Tip the sauce into the cooked pasta. Add the egg mixture. Stir and toss through adding a little more pasta water to loosen if needed. Taste. Adjust seasoning as needed and top with more parmesan. Enjoy!
Zaynab says
Sounds delicious! Can't wait to prepare this tomorrow night.