Beer is Delicious: Brown Ale Sauce

Tomatoes are out and beer is back in- vive la Brewsday! 

There are four things that all college kids have in their kitchen: spaghetti, onions, beer and cheese. Yes my friends, I used to make dinner out of only those four things. I'd caramelize onions, reduce beer, mix with pasta and top with cheese. Easy peasy lemon squeezy, as the other Hannah would say.

When I was cooking in college I'd grab whatever beer was leftover from the weekend before. It didn't always work out very well (Bud Light Lime is not good to eat or drink). The best beer to use in a sauce like this is a medium brown English style ale (try BBC Nut Brown Ale or Samuel Smith's Nut Brown Ale). The toasty flavor of the dark malts marry with the sugar in the onions and well, they form a very happy union.

This sauce is a dressed up version of my college dinner. I still like to toss it with spaghetti and top it with cheese, but I add a few vegetables and herbs in there too.

Here I've tossed the Brown Ale Sauce with spaghetti and arugula. I've topped it with pepper, Pecorino Romano cheese and a grilled artichoke. But you don't have to limit Brown Ale Sauce to pasta; it is delicious in so many ways. Other recommended uses include: using it as a spread on a chicken sandwich, marinating steak in it before grilling and dipping potato wedges in it. Mmm.

Brown Ale Sauce:
- serves four to six, depending on your portion size
3 large sweet onions
one small head garlic
1T balsamic vinegar
1T raw honey
1/4 cup nut brown ale
1/2 cup beef stock
1 heaping Tablespoon thyme, roughly chopped

Preheat oven to 400. Wrap garlic in tin foil and top with olive oil and a big pinch of kosher salt. Roast until your whole house smells like garlic (about 30 minutes). Meanwhile, dice onions and cook over medium heat with olive oil and two big pinches of kosher salt. When onions are caramelized, add vinegar and cook for another 3-5 minutes. Add beer and cook for another 3-5 minutes, scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Add stock and honey and cook for 3 minutes. Remove from heat and add thyme.

At this point, you can either chop the garlic (squeezed out of skins) and mix it in, then serve as is or you can throw everything into a food processor and pulse until smooth.

Happy eating and drinking to you all!