I made this up for the epic Meatball Party of 2012 and was not expecting it to be such a huge hit. It was nearly destroyed by the end of the evening. At the request of my coworkers, I'm putting the recipe here.
CARAMELIZED SHALLOT AND FONTINA DIP
2 large shallots, thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed through a garlic press
2 tsp olive oil
Undetermined amount of white wine, I would guess 1/4 cup
One of those giant containers of Philadelphia 1/3 less fat cream cheese--it should come to roughly 2 cups
1 cup mayonnaise
About 1-1 1/2 cups shredded fontina cheese
About 1 tablespoon lemon thyme, chopped
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper
1/2-3/4 cup panko bread crumbs
1 tablespoon olive oil, for drizzling
So...heat the 2 teaspoons olive oil in a skillet over med-high heat. Add the shallots and season with a little salt and let them cook until they are soft and starting to brown...uh, 10 minutes or so? Reduce the heat to medium and add the garlic and saute until it's nice and fragrant, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Add the wine and saute some more, allowing the liquid evaporate. Check the seasonings, turn the heat off, and allow the shallot mixture to cool.
In an old school heatproof casserole dish/bowl thing, combine the cream cheese, mayonnaise, fontina cheese, maybe 1 teaspoon salt, cayenne pepper, and lemon thyme. By the way, I am not a huge fan of thyme, but boy I like lemon thyme. It went in to almost everything at this shindig. Add the cooled shallots and mix it all together. You can put the dip into the fridge at this point if you're making a day or two ahead. Otherwise, preheat the oven to 350 F and spread the panko breadcrumbs across the top of the dip. Drizzle some olive oil over the crumbs to moisten and pop it in the oven, uncovered, until it's brown and bubbly. I'm guessing it's somewhere around 30 minutes, I did not keep track of time at all. I just checked it after awhile and it was done. Serve to your friends and watch in fascination as they tear it apart. I served it with some flatbread crackers, carrots, and sliced red bell peppers.
