TABELIA

AUTHENTIC RECIPE

Cipolle Borettane in AgrodolceSweet-and-Sour Borettane Onions

Sweet-and-Sour Borettane Onions
Difficulty★★☆☆☆ Prep20 min Cook35 min servings4

A traditional Emilian appetizer of small Borettane onions reduced with butter and balsamic vinegar into a sweet-and-sour glaze. Served with meat antipasti or as a delicatessen preparation.

Recipe developed and reviewed by the Tabelia Editorial TeamUpdated
100/ 100

AUTHENTICITY SCORE

Authenticity Score

This is the standard recipe, exactly as it’s made where it comes from — the highest Authenticity Score possible. Substituting ingredients changes this score; the app shows exactly how, ingredient by ingredient.

Ingredients (4 servings)

  • Borettane or pearl onions500 g
  • Butter30 g
  • Balsamic vinegar of Modena60 ml
  • Sugar1 tbsp
  • Bay leaf2 leaves
  • Salt1 pinch

Method

Blanching and peeling

1

Blanch and peel the onions

  • 1 Blanch the small onions in boiling water for 2 minutes.
  • 2 Drain in a colander, cut a cross in the root ends and slip off the skins.
  • 3 Peel carefully to keep their shape intact.

Sautéing

2

Brown the onions in butter

  • 1 Melt the butter in a frying pan over medium heat. Add the onions and cook for 3–4 minutes, rolling them to color all sides lightly golden.

Simmering

3

Simmer the onions with balsamic vinegar

  • 1 Add balsamic vinegar, sugar and bay leaf, cover and simmer over low heat for 20 minutes.
  • 2 Roll the onions over 1–2 times during cooking.

Glazing

4

Reduce to a glossy glaze

  • 1 Remove the lid, raise the heat to medium and reduce the sauce by half for 5–8 minutes.

Ready when

They are ready when coated in a glossy amber glaze.

Finishing

5

Season and serve

  • 1 Season with salt and remove the bay leaf.
  • 2 Serve at room temperature or chilled.

Ready when

They taste better the following day, once the flavors have melded.

A view of Parma
ParmaItaly Photo: Philip Mallis from Melbourne · CC BY-SA 2.0 (resized; display cropped)

About this dish

In the plains between Parma and Reggio Emilia in Emilia-Romagna, small, flat onions called Borettane are grown. Cipolline in agrodolce brings together this region’s onions and its balsamic vinegar culture.

Agrodolce, meaning sweet-and-sour, is a seasoning idea found throughout Italy. In Emilia, it connects with balsamic vinegar from Modena and Reggio Emilia and has long been enjoyed as a small accompaniment to meat and salumi.

Useful as either an appetizer or a contorno, it is a versatile dish that fills a place at the table. Giving durable little onions a flourish with a regional condiment, it embodies Emilia’s combination of practicality and abundance.

Chef Authen

Bring the full course home next weekend.

Bring every dish to the table at its best.

Choose the dishes you want to cook, and Chef Authen handles the shopping list and the day-of schedule. The Tabelia app turns everything from starter to main into one coordinated course in your kitchen.

  • One shopping listBuilt automatically from your menu and any substitutions, ready to check off.
  • One timelineEvery dish’s waiting and cooking time combined into a single schedule.
  • Answers beyond the recipeFrom judging the heat to adapting on the fly, Chef Authen answers with concrete criteria, not guesses.
Download on the App Store