Marcello Romanelli's Onion Omelet

One time years ago when I was visiting my med school friend Matt Romanelli in Brooklyn, we went out to his parents' house on Long Island for dinner and I got a special treat: Matt's mother always served a wonderful meal, but this particular time his father made this onion omelet to accompany it. A year or so ago I asked Matt for the recipe, and his father painstakingly wrote this. He gives away his engineering background with the precision with which he wrote it. (He worked for Grumman on the Apollo projects and the space shuttle - he gave Joey some of his NASA memorobilia once when we visited. Joey still cherishes all of it.) I have reproduced it precisely as Mr. Romanelli wrote it. Mrs. Romanelli told me that she usually buys Vidalia onions for him to use in this dish. As I said, the Romanellis served it as a side dish that night, but it is hearty enough to stand on its own as a main dish too.


10" fry pan and cover
3 lbs. onions
3 tbs. olive oil
9 large eggs, scrambled

1. Slice each peeled onion in half longitudinally.
2. Slice each half longitudinally into about 3/8" thick segments.
3. Put oil and all 3 lbs. of onions into pan.
4. Cook with a cover over medium heat.
5. Turn onions frequently to achieve uniform cooking. At first, the 3 lbs. will sit high in the pan. Eventually the onions' moisture will steam/boil off, leaving a much reduced height in the pan.

IMPORTANT:
You want to caramelize the onions (to bring out a sugary flavor). You can increase the heat some to speed up the caramelizing. Use an egg turner to scrape the dark brown caramel off the pan's bottom and onto the onions.

6. When the onions are sufficiently browned, reduce the heat to preclude further browning.
7. Slowly pour in the 9 scrambled eggs. Make an effort to evenly distribute the (liquid) eggs among the (solid) onions. You're trying to make a composite structure of the finished pie. (The cooked eggs will bind the onion bits in place giving the pie structural integrity like epoxy and carbon filaments.)
8. After pouring in the eggs, continue at low heat 30-40 minutes with cover on until it looks like a solid pie. Run a spatula around the pie's rim and also under the pie's bottom edges to ensure separation later.
9. Let the pie cool a bit: 30 minutes.
10. Place a serving plate larger than 10" with slightly curled-up edges over the pan. Flip pie over onto plate.

Bim's note: I add a little salt and pepper to the onions as they cook.