I really love brussels sprouts. If you’ve had them as a kid and hated them, they may very well have been overcooked! If you let them go too long, which is especially easy when boiling them, then they get a weirdly unpleasant sulfury taste. Lately I’ve been doing the following:
- Clean, remove stems, and halve 16 or so sprouts. Dice some garlic and shallots and mix them in with the sprouts. Coat everything very lightly in olive oil (optional, see step 3).
- Make some nice, crispy bacon, preferably in a cast iron skillet, over medium or medium-low heat.
- Toss the sprouts into the skillet with the bacon grease. Depending on how greasy your bacon was you may want to coat the sprouts beforehand with a little olive oil. This takes some experimentation.
- Sprinkle with a few pinches of sea salt, cover, and let sizzle for 5-7 minutes. Test the softness of the sprouts with a fork periodically. When they’re pleasantly soft, you’re done!
- Crumble the bacon into the pan, grind a little bit of pepper over everything, and dust with some grated parmesan or asiago.
The sprouts will hopefully take on a nice golden crust where they’re touched the pan although I always seem to burn them. Don’t fret–I’ve eaten some pretty charred sprouts and they amazingly still tasted fine.
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