It all started when I read this blog entry about my cousin Xani's trip to Pizzeria Mozza. She described a dish there she called "sprouts from heaven". Brussles sprouts tossed with prosciutto breadcrumbs.Immediately I thought to myself,
"Why, I have brussles sprouts"
"I have prosciutto!"
"I have bread!"
And I decided to try to recreate the dish at home that very night. I did a few google searches to see if I could locate the actual Mario Batali recipe. No dice. (Let me know if you know where to find it!) As I and my husband adore the brussles sprout, I make them quite often so I felt I could wing it. I decided on a methodology described in Mark Bittmans "How to Cook EVERYTHING" which I had never done before, but basically called for tossing them with breadcrumbs. It turned out ok but I think I would definitely do it differently the next time.
First, Miss D and I crisped some finely chopped prosciutto in a little olive oil.
I didn't have any dry bread crumbs on hand and all I had was sliced wheat bread. Oh well! I whirred those babies in my mini food processor and browned them in the proscuitto grease. Mmmm mmmmm.
Meanwhile I simmered the sprouts brussel in some water. (Here being one of two major errors. Firstly i think I cooked them a little too long. Secondly, although this was the method suggested by Mr. Bittman, I really prefer my B-sprouts browned. Once you have boiled or blanced a sprout it will have too much liquid to take on any color. My favorite method is to brown the sprouts first and then steam them off with a little liquid and a lid until they're cooked through. Just my 2 cents) But you can't say they didn't look pretty.
Then I dropped the drained sprouts into the same proscuitto-y re-oiled pan for a few minutes and made my 2nd error. I added the proscuitto and toasty breadcrumbs to the pan. This again was per the bittman directions, but of course they were for DRY breadcrumbs, not fresh. The annoying thing is that I actually went back and forth about adding them to the pan in my mind but i convinced myself that the brussles would dry up enough for the crumbs to retain their crispness. Booo. Sog City
Nonetheless. Brussles+Proscuitto+Crumbs = Good even if the textures were not what I would like them to be. Learn from my mistakes and try it yourself!
7 comments:
Good on you for trying to recreate this dish with only little guidance! Sounds delicious even if the textures weren't quite right. Good tips/warnings for the future if I were to try it at home, and GREAT methodology for the sprouts (browning first, then adding liquid and essentially steaming them) - that's how we do potstickers!
They truly are very pretty brussel sprouts - almost makes me want to eat them - if it weren't for the fact that I don't like them.
ahhh, that is what always happens to me. I will try to brown them first next time, but I find even if you add the liquid afterwards they lose some of the texture.
They are very pretty. I made some for Thanksgiving (steamed, browned, and topped with buttered hazlenuts), even though I don't like them very much, because I thought they would be well received by the English contingent of the household. Sadly, I was informed that English sprouts are much tastier and I had to eat all the leftovers myself...
As a kid, I always liked brussel sprouts. Very odd. I still like them a lot and that bowl of them looked awesome!! Nicely done!
Mmmmm. As I read this all I could think was: I like brussel sprouts, I like bread, I like what is essentially a form of bacon (mmm, bacon)! Fortunately, no one else in my family likes brussel sprouts no matter how much butter I use when I cook them (C is a big butter fan; she would eat it right out of the package if I would let her). So whenever I make them, they're all for me, yay!
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