Onion tart and new wine

When it gets colder and the trees start shedding their leaves, I start craving onion tart and Federweisser.
At this time of year, in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Italy, must of the first harvested white grapes are sold. This beverage is called Federweisser, which is German and means literally feather white. It is bottled while still fermenting, and due to this the bottles are sold with the lid not fully closed, as the bottles would burst otherwise. This causes two things: #1) it is only available for a limited time of year and #2) it is hard to get far away from the wineries, due to transport problems. Tradition requires it to be drank with onion tart. The combination of both, the sweet, sparkling wine-like drink and the hearty, crusty tart is a tasty match, and the caraway is responsible for easy digestion.



On a recent weekend trip to Germany we bought two bottles of Federweisser and last night we emptied them together with onion tart. Despite being usually an all-eater, our youngest child turned disgusted away when we presented him the onion tart. However, if don't trust his culinary sense and want to try it out for yourself - here is the recipe:

You need for four adults:

500g of flour
salt
sugar
7g dry yeast
lukewarm water
2 kg onions
400g smoked bacon in squares
200g creme fraiche
4 eggs
200 g cheese (Emmentaler, or Edamer, or young Gouda)
pepper
caraway seeds


Put flour in a bowl, mix two teaspoons of salt through. Make a little depression in the middle, add a pinch of sugar, dry yeast and two table spoons of luke-warm water.
Let sit until bubbles appear. Add as much water as necessary to create a nice and elastic, but not sticky, dough. Cover with kitchen tower and place at a warm place (but <36 degrees C). Now for the fun part: Peel and cut onions in small pieces. Put a pan on the stove, heat it and put smoked bacon/ham blocks inside. Add onions, stir until cooked, but do not let them get brown or worse, black. Let cool down a bit. Mix onions, bacon, Creme fraiche and eggs in a large bowl. Add grated cheese, salt, pepper and caraway.
Preheat the oven to 220 degree C.
Roll out the dough thinly and place on an oven tray, top with onion topping. Bake until dough is done and the top layer get brown.

Enjoy with Federweisser, - if you cannot get it, a sweet white wine will do, too.