If you’ve stopped by the Westford Farmer’s Market in the past few weeks, you may have noticed there is a new cheese vendor.  I love cheese, so you can imagine my excitement.  And I’m happy to report that the Nobscot Artisan cheeses are outstanding!  You can sample them at the Farmer’s Market and pick your favorite flavor to bring home.

I picked a tub of chive blend—it’s a soft cheese, tangier than cream cheese, and oh so delicious.  A spinach and herb Bagel Alley bagel with Eastleigh Fresh Nobscot Artisan cheese spread on top has become my new favorite Saturday-after-the-Farmer’s-Market meal.

As much as I love this cheese on bagels or crackers, I wanted to try it in a recipe.  I bought a bunch of onions from Dragonfly Farms at the market.  They were smaller than you generally find in a supermarket, and absolutely the perfect size for baked onions.  While you can use any size onion to make baked onions, I don’t like using huge onions.  I like to serve a whole onion to each person as a side dish, and a gigantic onion is just too much.

Baking onions brings out some sweetness.  I think this recipe makes the onions taste kind of like the onions in French Onion soup.  And while you could omit the cheese on top, it was a yummy complement to the flavor.  Isn’t most everything better with cheese?

Ingredients:

This week, I’m going to give you an ingredient list for each serving.  That way you can make as many or as few onions as you’d like!

• 1 onion for each person.  I prefer to use smaller onions—about the size of your fist.
• ¼ teaspoon butter (approximate) for each onion
• Scant ½ teaspoon beef flavored Better Than Bouillon (you could also use bouillon crystals) for each onion
• 1 heaping teaspoon Chive flavor Eastleigh Fresh Nobscot Artisan Cheese for each onion

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Cut the top and bottom off each onion, then make a shallow cut down the side and remove the skin from the onion.
3. Hold the knife at an angle and cut a small hole in the top of each onion.  Place a small pat of butter (about ¼ teaspoon) in each.  I’ve included a picture so you can see what I mean.
4. Place the onions in an oven-safe casserole and top with a scant ½ teaspoon of beef flavor Better Than Bouillon on top of the butter.
5. Cover the dish and bake for an hour.
6. After the onions have baked, take them from the oven and remove the cover.  Top each onion with a heaping teaspoon of cheese.  Return to the oven for an additional five minutes, until the cheese has softened.  Serve one onion to each person as a side dish.