Black Pepper and Onion Spaghetti
Published Feb. 6, 2024
- Total Time
- About 1½ hours
- Prep Time
- 5 minutes
- Cook Time
- About 1½ hours
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
Yield:4 servings (about 2 cups sauce)
- ½cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 1pound white onions (about 3 medium), sliced ¼-inch-thick
- ½pound red onion (about 1 medium), sliced ¼-inch-thick
- Salt
- 12ounces spaghetti or bucatini
- 2tarragon sprigs, leaves only (about 2 tablespoons)
- Finely grated Grana Padano or Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (optional), for serving
- Freshly ground black pepper
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)
633 calories; 29 grams fat; 4 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 20 grams monounsaturated fat; 3 grams polyunsaturated fat; 81 grams carbohydrates; 6 grams dietary fiber; 9 grams sugars; 14 grams protein; 664 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Powered byPreparation
- Step 1
In a large Dutch oven or skillet with a lid, add the olive oil and white and red onions and set over medium heat. Once sizzling, cook until onions are slightly wilted and starting to sweat but not browned, 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in ½ teaspoon salt, cover, reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the onions are very soft and translucent but mostly still in strands, about 1 hour. Adjust heat as needed to maintain a simmer, and if the onions are burning, add a few tablespoons of water. (Onions can be made ahead and refrigerated for 1 week or frozen for a couple months.)
- Step 2
When you’re ready to serve, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the spaghetti and cook until al dente according to package directions. Reserve 1½ cups pasta water and drain.
- Step 3
Add ½ cup pasta water, the pasta and the tarragon leaves to the onions. Raise heat to medium-high and stir vigorously until the pasta is well coated in sauce, 1 to 2 minutes. Add more pasta water as needed until the noodles are glossy. Season to taste with salt.
- Step 4
Transfer the pasta to plates or shallow bowls and cover with cheese (if using) and generous grinds of black pepper.
Private Notes
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Cooking Notes
Max Alexander, Rome
No need to drain the pasta and deal with a colander. Do as we do in Italy: Using tongs, transfer pasta directly from the water into the onions. Any clinging water will help make the sauce, then use a ladle to add more simmering pasta water to taste. Tarragon is hard to find in Italy, but it’s a nice idea.
Zeldie
Tarragon is not liked by many including myself so used thyme and sage from my herb pots instead ; even left some sage to crisp up in olive oil and crumbled it on top of the cheese. caramelized, sautéed onions has been a classic in many pasta dishes. I wouldn’t freeze…looses its deliciousness.
Irie
I'm loving these harmonies of tarragon, onions, black pepper and parmesan, and the comforting sauciness coating the pasta. Brightens up a midwinter midday meal, and a simple vinaigrette green salad on the side.
Ruth's notes
mmg, your note sent me to Marcella Hazan's Onion Sauce recipe. It called for parsley and a bit of white wine. It was out of the world good. So simple yet luxurious to the taste. And onions were on sale! Also agree with the suggestion to sadd the dripping pasta into the sauce. It was perfectly moist. RACS
Karryn Coleman
There are 2 varieties of tarragon, French & Russian: it is the Russian which has the unpleasant liquorice flavour. Personally, I don't consider it the 'real' tarragon. French tarragon is the real deal which has a completely different taste. It is the herb used in béarnaise sauce & any French cooking. The Russian variety is a very poor substitute. Try to find French tarragon although you may have to look it in a garden shop and grow it. The leaves are very different, look up the internet.
Warren
Agree with Zeldie, tarragon is not universally loved so I also used sage along with a bit of oregano. Cooked the onions the day before so that when I came home from work had dinner on the table in 30 minutes, lots of cracked pepper and asiago. Turned out great
mmg
If you like this, check out Marcella Hazan’s smothered onion sauce.
Beth
Recommendations for replacing the tarragon? Maybe savory?
William Wroblicka
Well then, you probably want a recipe that doesn't have onions as the main ingredient in the sauce.
Bea
This dish is more than 800 calories per serving and is likely to be a side dish. Is it heretical to ask if you can cut the oil in half and after the initial cooking, add 3 Tb water instead of oil?
Jeff
To those who don’t care for tarragon, I think herbs de province would work nicely in this dish.
Leskap19
This ended up too sweet for me from the onions and no balancing spice or tang. I added red pepper flakes which helped somewhat
beth
I think either winter or summer savory would work well.
Teresa in Park Slope South
Pasta and peas, we call this. Not sure where this came into our lives and this recipe plus about 1/2 bags of ofrozen peas is still nirvana after 65 years. Kim used to make it and we still do today. For meat eaters a little pancetta is nirvana plus…
John in Sedona
This was simple and very good. I haven't cooked onions in exactly this way before, and I was surprised how mild and sweet the end product was. Subbed 2 tsp dried tarragon for the 2 tbsp fresh -- the licorice flavor was pretty mild. When I first looked at the recipe it had 3 stars, which is pretty unusual -- perversely, it made me want to try it, just to see how bad a 3 star NYT recipe is. But now it's up to 4 stars, so I guess I'll have to wait to find out.
Michael
This is so easy and delicious on its own. Have also made with shrimp simply sautéed in butter, olive oil with minced garlic and crushed red pepper. Then had to try it with chicken livers. Yes. I don’t think you can make a bad version of this dish!
Annienell
I made this according to the recipe and we really liked it. At first it seemed like too much oil but once I added the pasta and pasta water it was perfect. We didn’t find it sweet, the pepper took care of that. Really. Add more than you think is reasonable. Then add some more. And then add some more. Next time I’ll use more tarragon than is called for and I’ll mix the cheese into the pasta before I serve it.
gailanne
This is a fantastic recipe, its simplicity captured my imagination so made it for a dinner party...one ting added-threw in a bunch of sweet cherry tomatoes to soften/blister in last phase of cooking--then scattered some freshly grated aged cheddar atop the dish to complement the sweetness of the onions- got mms from smarty pants eaters who were suspicious of the seaming duh/simplicity of this recipe until they tasted it .Thank you NYT, Michelle Baldacci, and Ali Slagle--
Wurmy
I had no taragon I still liked it twice now, I'm
marcia
I used 1/3 cup olive oil instead of the 1/2 cup in the recipe, but added a couple of tablespoons of butter to the oil. I also blanched a bunch of rainbow chard in the pasta water prior to adding pasta and cut out the center rib and chopped the leaves. Added to the final dish it cut the sweetness a bit and we used less pasta with a mound of barely-cooked chard leaves on the plate under the hot pasta, which steamed the chard a bit more.
Eleanor
Wow! Very similar to Marcella Hazan's recipe, but the lack of wine and parsley and the addition of black pepper are improvements. Best of all, while the onions take their time to cook down, it requires little intervention, perfect for a night when others things need attention.
Barbara
Fabulous and easy, although of course it took me longer than 5 minutes to peel and slice the onions. Prepared onions ahead of time, used bucatini, added it to the sauce rather than draining it, and used sage and thyme from the garden, which I added when I heated up the onions.
Annie
Ho hum. I love onions and black pepper and Grana Padano so thought this would be so yummy. It was disappointing--quite bland, and more salt, pepper, cheese and even red pepper flakes did not make this a hit :(
CliffS
3 different markets out here were out of tarragon, so I used chopped thyme we already had. Lovely. Next time I'll also add some parsley and maybe a splash of white wine. Lovely for lunch or even a first course of a fancier dinner with company. Thank you!
Jessica M
The smell of cooking onions was amazing, but the dish as written came out so sweet that I couldn't eat very much. Needs something acidic or sharp to cut the sweetness from all those onions. One of the few times I've made something I couldn't manage to finish as leftovers.
Georage
I doubled the onions, used 1 flat tablespoon of dried tarragon, and 1 pack of spaghetti (16 oz) and it seems pretty perfect. Served with spicy shrimp sauteed in 1/3 parts maple syrup, chili garlic paste, low sodium soy sauce.
spaghetti with onions
Basalmic and butter after an half hour. Beaten egg.
Dennis Schaefer
Instead of using ground pepper, I used crushed peppers instead. You just put about a tablespoon of black peppercorns in a plastic bag and whack them like mad with a mallet. This not only frightens the cat, but is also very satisfying. The crushed peppercorns gave the dish just a little bit of crunchy texture. Yum yum.
Bill
Made exactly per recipe, and it turned out waaay too sweet! Not sure if it was the white onions--I had to uncover them for last 10 minutes to cook out some liquid. And then tarragon just added sweetness. Lemon juice helped, but not enough. One and done!
Charles Michener
Per recipe, the results were a little too sweet for my taste (all those onions!) and the tarragon (French) was interesting but odd (un-Italian). Next time, I used a splash of Pinot Grigio with the onions and gruyere instead of parmesan. Its nuttiness really worked to balance the sweetness. Finished with a garnish of minced garlic, parsley and lemon zest and a good pinch of Urfa Biber, the wonderful Turkish chili pepper, which improves everything it touches.
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