This easy to make dish is a good example of allowing a simple ingredient such as onion to do all the taste talking without any major help or encouragement from other fancy ingredients or additions.

November is a great month for sweet onions from the Northern Cape and they are really quite special, so don?t miss the opportunity to use them because the season is relatively short.

They are so good you can eat them on their own, wrapped in tin foil and oven baked or placed on the side of the braai fire. They are also good in salads and they keep their taste and add wonderful flavours to stews and soups as well.

Sweet onions can usually be obtained from all the major supermarkets between November and April.

To make enough for four servings you need:

Ingredients

For the sweet onion topping

3 large onions, peeled and thinly sliced into rings

Salt and black pepper

2 tablespoons olive oil

Optional ? 2 tablespoons white port or any other white, sweet wine

For the bruschetta

1 large loaf of French or Italian bread, sliced

4 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped

2 tablespoons olive oil

Salt and black pepper

Method

In a large pan or pot heat the oil and gently fry the onion until it starts to soften Sprinkle with salt and pepper

(If using the sweet wine, add now, bring to a quick boil then turn off the heat)

Set aside the onion pot, but keep warm

For the bruschetta, mix the garlic and olive oil, add a little salt and black pepper then brush bread slices with the garlic-oil mix

Under the grill toast the bread until golden

Place bruschetta slices on four individual plates and spoon over the sweet onion.

Serve immediately

Footnote: A simple combination of chopped avocado, cucumber, tomato tossed in a little olive oil and lemon or lime juice is a tasty aside to the sweet onion and bruschetta