The recipe is from DH great aunt, but I have simplified it a bit over the years.
The original recipe uses the biggest onions you can find, and looks really impressive.
Original:
Cut the top and bottom from the largest onions you can find, so they stand up straight, and remove alternating sections of the rings inside so that you end up with concentric circles, with gaps in between. (This is a bit of a faff. You can just use small onions and remove the whole middle bit, which is what I often tend to do. It’s not quite the same but it is much easier and still delicious).
Finely chop the bits of onion you have removed, toss in seasoned flour, and set aside.
Bake the whole onions until the are soft - original recipe has you cook them in a water bath first, but I never bother with that, I just put them in with the rest of the roast. But if you were prepping them the day before, I suppose it would make sense.
Fry the chopped onion with some garlic and any spices you like and let it cool.
Then mix in mashed up feta, a bit of cream cheese to soften, ground pepper and a spritz of lemon. Original recipe includes raisins at this point, but I find they tend to divide opinion. You can use goats cheese instead of the feta and cream cheese if you prefer. You can add the pine nuts now, but I tend to just put them on top, since they are so expensive 😂.
Take the cooked whole onions and spoon your cheese and onion mixture in between the rings.
(You’ll have a bit left over. It’s lovely with crusty bread, or spread on crackers)
Wedge the pine nuts in at the top - you can also use walnuts.
Return to the baking dish.
Lay some sprigs of thyme on top, and add a drizzle of oil.
Bake until golden, oozing and caramelised, about 15-20 mins.