Thursday, November 01, 2007

Pasta con cavoletti di Bruxelles!

A few nights ago I tried to make something as an exploration for the 'Fresh produce of the month' themed on Brussel sprouts, that I'm hosting (click here for details!). So here is what I came up with:

Pasta ai cavoletti di Bruxelles / Brussel sprout pasta
Making it is quite easy. Sautee one small onion in ~2 tbsp olive oil, and add three cups of brussel sprouts cut in half. Sautee them on high heat for about 5 minutes, then add tomatoes (better fresh, otherwise canned, like I did - in the latter case, use whole tomatoes, and dice them in the pan as they become soft. I used a 1 lb can). Add salt to taste. Cook them for another 10-15 min, covered, until the brussel sprouts are soft. Add a few pieces (~1/2 cup) of cheese that can melt. I had some really good Italian cheese (asiago) that I brought from my trip, so that was perfect, but you could use any other meltable and possibly tasty cheese that you can find. Stir with the rest of the sauce for one more minute, then sprinkle some pepper, and mix with the pasta which you will have cooked al dente in the meanwhile. The ratio of vegetables/pasta depends on your taste. I tend to agree with an article that I remember being recently mentioned by Ruth at a 'Presto Pasta night', about the idea of using a lot of vegetable-based sauce for not a lot of pasta. So this amount of sauce would be ok for ~1/2 lb pasta, and would probably be enough for 4 people. But if you're more into pasta, you can have more pasta and less sauce, maybe just grate some more parmigiano cheese on top!
This is going to be one of my entries for the 'Fresh Produce of the Month', and also my entry for this week 'Presto Pasta nights' hosted by Ruth!

4 comments:

Ruth Daniels said...

I love Brussels sprouts! Thanks for sharing with Presto Pasta Night.

And now I get to think up something wonderful to do with Brussels Sprouts for your event too!

bee said...

in a shameless promo ... may i note that you can submit this for CLICK -Noodles at Jugalbandi :D

--jai

bee said...

in a shameless promo ... may i note that you can submit this for CLICK -Noodles at Jugalbandi :D

--jai

chemcookit said...

Ruth - thanks a lot! I'll be very interested in seeing what you make!

Bee - I'm actually going to make a special dish for that event.. I really want to have a good picture and I want what I'd define real 'noodles' (Italians are picky on pasta definitions. :) ) .. hopefully it'll be good!!!