Roasted Tomatoes and Cipollini Onions with White Beans

- 1 pound cipollini onions
- 1½ pounds (680 grams) small Roma or large cherry tomatoes
- ¼ cup (60 ml) olive oil
- Coarse salt
- Four 1-inch-thick slices country or ciabatta bread
- Garlic clove (optional)
- One 15-ounce (425-gram) can of large white beans, such as Great Northern, drained and rinsed, or 1½ cups cooked beans of your choice
- Few fresh basil leaves, slivered
Instructions:
I like to add some white beans to the mix as well, because the pan juices make an excellent dressing, and they help turn this into a full meal.
- Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Boil a small pot of water, and blanch the cipollini onions for 10 seconds, then plunge them into cold water. Use a paring knife to make a small slit in each onion, and slide them out of their skins and their outer layer.
- Spread the peeled onions and the tomatoes in a roasting pan. Drizzle them with olive oil and a few good pinches of coarse salt. Toss everything together until well coated, and roast in preheated oven for 45 to 55 minutes, reaching in every 15 minutes with a spatula to roll the tomatoes and onions around to ensure all sides get blistered.
- Just before you take the tomatoes and onions out, place your bread slices on the oven rack (or on a tray, if you’re more refined than we are) and let them toast lightly. You can rub the toasts with a halved garlic clove, if you like, while still hot. Use tongs to arrange the toasts in one layer on a serving platter. Dump the white beans over the bread, and, using a pot holder, scrape the entire contents of the tomato-and-onion roasting pan, still hot, over the white beans. Do not skimp on the juices that have collected, all of them—don’t leave any in the pan. They could make a religious person out of you.
- Sprinkle the dish with the basil, and eat at once.