Roberto Donna's Cipolla Ripiena Alla "Cesare Giaccone"
Executive chef/owner Galileo Restaurant, Washington, D.C.
I Matti, Pesce, Il Radicchio, Arucola, Dolcetto, Barolo and Cesco.

• 4 onions (2 1/2 lbs.)
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. sage sauce
• 4 fresh sage leaves

Stuffing:

• 5 ounces gorgonzola cheese, chopped
• 1 cup Bechamel sauce
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/3 Parmesan cheese
• 2 fresh sage leaves, finely chopped

To roast onions, place whole onions, with skin, on a baking sheet. Bake in preheated oven 1 hour and 40 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside to cool. After onions are cooled enough to touch, peel off outer layer of skin, leaving remaining browned skin; cut off top end of onion, approximately 1/8"and set cap aside. Scoop out inner layers of onion, leaving 3 layers on sides. If the bottom side of the onion has a hole, slice one piece of an inner layer and place over hole to close off bottom of onion.

To prepare stuffing, combine gorgonzola, Bechamel and milk in a medium sauce pan and place over medium heat. Stir mixture as it cooks for 7 minutes, then remove from heat. Pour mixture onto mixing bowl and blend using whisk. Add Parmesan cheese and mix well, ensuring that there are no lumps in mixture. Add sage and continue to mix well. When mixture is blended, place bowl inside a second mixing bowl filled with ice water to cool.

Rub unsalted butter on baking sheet and place onions on sheet. Fill pastry bag with chilled gorgonzola sauce; fill onion shells with mixture. Place tops on onions and place in preheated oven at 375 degrees. Bake for 8 minutes and remove.

Serve each onion with 2 teaspoons sage sauce; garnish with sage leaves.