Brussel Sprout Shout-Out

I originally planned to just cook Brussels sprouts as a side dish, which is easy: A little olive oil and/or butter in a stainless saute pan -- one thing I don't use my cast iron for -- and a little white wine. You can cut X's on the bottom or cut them in half. Salt, pepper, and if they happen to be old, maybe a sprinkle of sugar, although the wine usually takes care of that.

But I happened to have some Cremini mushrooms and some leeks that I wanted to use up. And I had just read, once again, that it is healthier to treat meat and cheese as condiments rather than as entrees. Well, I happened to have some prosciuitto, which I do regard as a condiment because it is so salty, and some pecorino cheese, which, ditto. And of course there is always pasta in the pantry.

So.

Now, I will say that I made a big batch of this, but everything is scalable. You could use 2-3 mushrooms, 3-4 brussels sprouts, a little bit of pasta and etc. For this recipe, the quantaties will be described as "some."

Put water on to boil, adding salt. This is for dried pasta. If using fresh pasta, this can wait.

Rinse some mushrooms. Cut any nasty dry ends off and slice what is left. (All spare parts go into the compost bucket, of course.)

Chop some leek. (I had already cleaned it. If you are starting from scratch, see previous entries on the cleaning of leeks. I had some clean, wrapped in a moist towel, in my fridge.)

Wash the brussels sprouts. I don't care what the bag says. (Well, I am assuming fresh ones. If the bag is frozen, thaw them.) Cut any nasty dry ends off and cut them in half.

When the water is boiling, add the pasta. I used that corkscrew pasta -- rotellii?

Heat up the stainless saute pan and put in olive oil, butter or both. I use half of each. The bottom of the pan needs to be coated, but we are not deep frying here!

Put in the leeks, mushrooms and brussels sprouts. Stir occasionally. I took a moment to smash four cloves of garlic and add them. After about two minutes, pour in some wine -- just enough to get some steam going. Plus, with the olive oil/butter, it makes its own sauce. I put a lid on it for a couple of minutes to make sure the brussels sprouts get cooked, then take the lid off so the liquid can reduce. Most important to me is that the brussels sprouts do not overcook. They should be bright green. Not gray.

Shave some thin slices of cheese -- I used pecorino this time -- and slice some ribbons of prosciutto. (Vast opportunity for substitution here; fry up some bacon, use any cheese you have, skip entirely, boil an egg, vegans use beans.)

When the pasta is done, which it should be in 8-10 minutes, drain it. Put some on a plate. Put some of the sprout mixture on the plate. Garnish with the strips of prosciutto and pecorino. Let me say that the plate in the picture would serve about four people. Brussels sprouts are quite filling!

Now, if I were not trying to be healthy, I would do this differently, and it would be much richer and probably much more elegant. I would saute the leeks and mushrooms in one skillet and the brussels sprouts in another. To the skillet of leeks and mushrooms, I would, eventually, add a little cream. This would make a very, very rich and delicious sauce. I'm trying to not even think about it.