Oven-Roasted Brussells Sprouts

Many years ago, when I was very young, I kept a diary. This was not a "so-and-so boy is SO cute!!!" type of diary. It was a "I am SO lucky that I love brussels sprouts!" type of diary. You see, I was extremely easy to influence at this age. My parents had made brussels sprouts for dinner, gotten me all whipped up into a frenzy by saying, "WOW, Julia, these are SO good!!! Don't you love them?! Gosh, you're lucky!!". Apparently, that's all it took to get me to accept my love of brussels sprouts as fact and espouse that love on paper for posterity.

As the years went on, brussels sprouts and I had sort of a falling out. It had really been years since I'd had them. That is, until Joef and I went to out to eat at Zinc for Valentine's Day, and ordered the grilled natural hangar steak in cabernet-bordelaise sauce with roasted baby brussels sprouts. Oh my Lord. The steak was fantastic. The sauce was fantastic. The brussels sprouts were out of this world. They absolutely stole the show.

So I had to give them a go at home. I browsed a few online recipes for oven-roasting brussels sprouts, and then just went for it. Now, I didn't have baby brussels sprouts, and I didn't have a cabernet-bordelaise sauce, but wow. These were still absolutely awesome. You can practically eat them like candy. Savory, slightly bitter, delicious candy. Combine that with the fact that they're insanely quick and easy, and you've got a new menu regular.

I think it's best not to be too exact with this recipe, so:

1 package brussels sprouts

Olive oil

Salt

Ground pepper

Balsamic vinegar or lemon juice, optional

Parmesan cheese, optional

Preheat the oven to 400. Prep the brussels sprouts by trimming the stem ends and then peeling off any yellow outer leaves. Next, cut them in half lengthwise and throw them in a bowl. Drizzle on some olive oil, add salt and pepper to taste, and if you want, add a splash or two of balsamic or a squeeze or so of lemon juice. Toss.

Pop the sprouts in the oven on a rimmed baking sheet and roast for about 30 minutes, or until they're crispy on the outsides (see photo). Stir them around once or twice while they're in the oven. When you take them out, you can sprinkle them with a little parmesan cheese before serving. So surprisingly good!

Peas, Mushrooms, and Prosciutto Sauce with Cream

(adapted from Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking)

Hooray! Italian food! Pasta! Carbohydrates! Honestly, I love all kinds of food, but if I've gone too long without pasta, things get ugly. I just need it. It's my core diet.

I had never tried making a cream sauce before (well, I did a makeshift - but yummy - alfredo or two in college). I had a sense of what I wanted to do, and I read Marcella's recipe for "Peas, Peppers, and Prosciutto Sauce with Cream" to get a sense of the basics and then improvised. While I'm sure I didn't improve on Marcella (is such a thing possible?), this was really delicious. Great for a chilly winter evening, when you need a little fattening up.

This is fast, so you can start the water boiling while you prep the ingredients.

1/2 package mushrooms, sliced and maybe halved
2-3 tbsp butter
4-6 thin slices prosciutto, torn into strips
1 cup small frozen peas, thawed
1 cup light cream ("healthy"!)
Salt
Freshly-ground black pepper
Pinch ground nutmeg
1/2 - 3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
3/4-1lb pasta

Start by sauteeing the mushrooms in the butter over medium heat with a little salt and ground pepper. When they've softened, add the prosciutto and cook for about a minute. Stir in the peas, cooking for another minute.

Add the cream, along with salt to taste an another grinding of pepper, plus your pinch of nutmeg. Cook, stirring constantly, until the cream thickens.

Toss the sauce with your pasta and add the parmesan and stir. Serve and devour!