Melting-middle baked onions

Method

• step 1

  Heat the oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Trim the bases of the onions so they stand up in a baking tray, and cut the tops flat, about 1cm down, so you can see most of the onion layers. Pour 1cm boiling water into the tray, add the bay leaves and cover tightly with foil. Bake for 1-1¼ hours until they are soft all the way through when pierced with a skewer.

• step 2

  Pour any liquid from the bottom of the tray away, and leave to cool for 20 minutes until they are cool enough to touch.
  Pull out the centres of the onions by gently squeezing them, they should pop out of the top, or use a spoon to scoop out the layers. Leave about 4 or 5 outer onion layers as a shell. Finely chop the soft onion middles, season with salt and lots of black pepper, and add a pinch of thyme leaves, and pack into the onion shells to fill them about 2cm up. Discard any onion left over (or use for soup). Mix the cheese, garlic, nutmeg, half the thyme leaves and season. Spoon into the onions on top of the chopped onion, packing the cheese in densely, as the cheese will melt and reduce when cooked.

• step 3

  Toss the bread cubes with 1 tbsp oil, the remaining thyme and season well. Add to the tops of the onions. Drizzle over a little more olive oil. Bake for 15 minutes until the tops are golden and crunchy. Serve with a green salad or vegetables.