Baked Skillet Pasta With Cheddar and Spiced Onions Recipe (2024)

To speed up cartelizing onions, do this. Put sliced onions on a plate covered with a paper towel in a microwave. Cook on high for 2 min. THEN put the onions in a cast iron skillet with heated oil. The onions will quickly cook now that most of the moisture is out. Keep turning the onions and you will soon see carmelization in half the time!

Made tonight, and we loved it. I haven't seen my husband go after food like that in forever. Keeping prior reviews in mind, I used a large Le Creuset risotto pot instead of my 12" cast iron skillet. It would have been an overflowing mess. I used a 28 oz can of plum tomatoes and no extra water, and tossed in 1/2 C of good Chianti I was drinking while cooking because the pot and I deserved it. This is a hearty, warm dish that will soothe your senses and your soul. My house still smells amazing.

Made this last Saturday. Used 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes (substituting the 14 oz can of tomatoes and 14 oz of water). Came out GREAT! For those asking about onions....one large onion should come out to heaping 3 cups each when sliced. Used 9-10 C sliced onions for this.

This is really good. Interesting blend of flavors for pasta. I will for sure cook this again.Can’t be done in one hour though - how could it if the cooking time alone adds up to 1 hr. Usually the estimates are pretty close and I’ve come to rely on them, I recommend that the time estimate should be changed...

Reading through the comments, I saw several complaints/warnings about how long it takes to brown the onions A pinch of baking soda will speed up the browning process (the Maillard reaction.) Just a pinch, too much will be noticeable in the finished dish.More about using baking soda on Serious Eats:https://www.seriouseats.com/2016/10/surprising-uses-for-baking-soda.html

For this recipe, I will sauté twice the recommended onions for step 1 of recipe.Then half will go into a vacuum seal container and get frozen. Then the next time this recipe prepared, it will be faster.

Wonderful dish. I followed the recipe exactly but was afraid it would spill out of the skillet so transferred it to a lasagna pan before adding the final onions and cheeses and putting it into the oven. This is an amazing dish. It's just predictable enough to be immensely comforting but unusual in ways that feel exactly right, not gimmicky.

To PH:I agree about measurements. Please don't say how many onions, yell me in ounces, or preferably grams

Nice option for vegetarians. I transferred onions and tomatoes to Le Creuset casserole dish. I made it ahead and put it in the oven when my guests arrived. I followed suggestions to use diced tomatoes. Next time I might increase some of the spices. Recipe served 8.

Olive oil can be used for pan frying and high-temp sauté. The error here is specifying extra virgin olive oil, which should be used solely for flavoring, not frying. Use regular, clear olive oil (often sold in cans) for pan frying and higher temperature cooking. If you want that fresh, green-olive oil flavor in your dish, add a splash of good quality EVOO at the end and heat through. That thing about olive oils changing chemical structure at high heat is just another internet myth.

Took note of what Lori said and used 28oz of tomatoes instead of 15oz. and slightly bumped up the spice. Cooked it down a bit longer than suggested. Delicious. Christmas dinner 2018 with semi crisp green beans.

I think the one hour time frame for this dish is very optimistic. It can take an hour to get three onions into the proper browned state, in my experience!!

Ya know, throw in some ground beef or chunks of pancetta, you have lasagna in a skillet. You can never go wrong with pasta, sauce & cheese, especially on winter nights.

We both liked this. I boiled some cauliflower with the pasta, and served it with Turkish yogurt, which was nice. Next time I may toss in some capers and a few spoons of tomato paste, and will up the spices.

So this was good! Followed the recipe except: halved the amount of pasta, used cheddar/monterey jack blend, used diced tomatoes, and a 10 in cast iron skillet.The onions took forever!I did not ruin my cast iron skillet (6 y.o, Lodge) by cooking this.Next time, I will add chipotle chiles. I'm surprised Melissa didn't!

Love this recipe - such great flavors. It take a lot long to make than 1 hr - plan for about 2 but well worth it.

When I'm considering a NYT recipe, I look at the ingredients, scan the instructions, and read a few comments. One thing I never look at is the Total Time. I know how long it takes me to chop a few onions, a few cloves of garlic or whatever the recipe calls for so I have a a general idea on how long it will take, from kitchen top to table top.

Added coriander seeds to onions. Used master curry. Cut the cheese.

Add coriander seeds to onions. Use master curry. Add a green like arugula. Cut the cheese in half.

Not for me. Didn't like the cumin, which is odd because that's one of my favorite spices. I have a ton left over, so am going to have to figure out a way to convert this to something likeable to avoid it ending up in the trash can. The onions were great, but not enough to carry the dish.

The heart of this dish really is the spiced caramelized onions as well as a good-quality cheese. I used a Boar's Head Vermont Cheddar, which unfortunately was a bit rubbery. I also opted for a 9x13 dish, as many of Melissa's recipes tend to overflow, and I don't have a NYT staff to clean my oven. But a terrific dish for a snowy weekend, and I appreciate it being vegetarian, and how can one go wrong with the intense flavor of caramelized onions? Better than Ali Slagle's recipe for carm. onions.

I think this may mean to indicate the 28oz. Can. This is great!

Way too much pasta and onions and pepper. Suggest to double to two cans of tomatoes. Overall disappointing. Needs some veggies, maybe baby spinach, mushrooms, broccoli.

I made this almost exactly as written. Cilantro instead of parsley, but I might do 1/2 and 1/2 next time. A splash of red wine based on a commenter who did so (nice suggestion!) and I cooked this in a 6 Qt. cast iron Dutch oven instead of a skillet. I think this would be messy if using a skillet and it wasn't at all with the Dutch oven. It's really easy to make, though not super quick, and it has great flavor. Ground meat would be great in this, as would sour cream dabs. Next time!

Double tomatoes

I agree that my kitchen smelled amazing! However, something didn’t completely “meld” together for me. I do wonder about adding some meat, or possibly green pepper. I think the “taco” description is fair…I’m even thinking adding sour cream on top!

I'll do a lot for a good recipe, but not squish or cut up canned tomatoes for a pasta bake. I don't see why we can't just use diced. And I'm going to!

Nice enough but took more like an hour and a half.

Will use a little less salt next time, but this tasted good

I made this pasta twice this week; split into 2 smaller pans/nights as my oven was out and I had to use our toaster oven. I liked it the first night, but the cheese was too much of an isolated, solid raft on top. So, the 2nd night I mixed most of the cheese into the onions and pasta with just a sprinkling on top…much better! The cheese was creamy and more of a sauce. Huge improvement!