Black Pepper and Onion Spaghetti Recipe (2024)

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.

Tarragon is not liked by many including myself so used thyme and sage frommy herb pots instead ; even left somesage 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.

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.

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

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.

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

If you like this, check out Marcella Hazan’s smothered onion sauce.

Recommendations for replacing the tarragon? Maybe savory?

Well then, you probably want a recipe that doesn't have onions as the main ingredient in the sauce.

To those who don’t care for tarragon, I think herbs de province would work nicely in this dish.

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?

This ended up too sweet for me from the onions and no balancing spice or tang. I added red pepper flakes which helped somewhat

I think either winter or summer savory would work well.

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.

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.

Basalmic and butter after an half hour. Beaten egg.

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.

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!

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.

Made as written. Way, way too sweet for my hubby and I. I was scrambling at the end to balance the taste. Served with fresh lemon wedges, red pepper flakes and chili crisp and more reserved pasta water on the table which helped a bit. The range of opinions on this recipe is interesting.

My New England yankee mother learned to cook from her Italian mother-in-law and father-in-law. She made something similar to this starting with the drippings from a roast beef while the roast rested. Excluding the tarragon. We would sometimes have this meal for Sunday afternoon dinner with the pasta as a first course. She and my father called it pasta alla genovese. Whether or not the name was accurate doesn’t matter. It was simple and one of the most delicious things she would make.

I have been making Onion Spaghetti for 50 years, with these differences: Drain pasta, put back in the empty pot, heat off. Add a beaten egg, and stir (like a Carbonara). Add a handful of chopped parsley. Spaghetti, browned onions, eggs, parsley, salt, pepper, cheese. Keep it simple. I love garlic but not in this one. Maybe some red pepper flakes at the table.

My husband must be on a low carb diet. We use high protein very low carb hearts of palm noodles. They are all ready (no cooking) so no pasta water. What can I substitute so that the sauce is comparable to the one in the recipe?

I appreciate the comments about substituting other herbs for the tarragon. I find that even a modest amount of tarragon can dominate a dish. While I respect the desire to keep simple dishes simple, I might be tempted to add maybe one crushed and chopped garlic clove to the onions when they cooking. I'm a fan of garlic and find it a plus to most pasta dishes, but when making a dish the first time I try to closely follow the recipe so I can appreciate the dish as the chef/cook intended.

Recipe seems simple but taste is complex. For caramelizing onions, after about a half hour, added 1 tb butter and1 tsp balsamic vinegar. Served with braised portobellos in an apple cider reduction.

This ended up too sweet for me from the onions and no balancing spice or tang. I added red pepper flakes which helped somewhat

For the little effort that went into this, it turned out delicious. Couldn’t get tarragon so threw some thyme sprigs in with the onions—still great.

It's plain. I love onions that is why I made it and while they cooked my house smelled wonderful. Followed recipe (tho I questioned its reduced ingredients) but the end result... Meh. Has no pop or that much taste. I think this recipe would benefit from a hit of fresh garlic in the onions as they cook and I would add more tarragon that suggested and salt at the end. Prob won't make again.