fusilloni con cavolini di bruxelles, bacon e dolcelatte


fusilloni with brussels sprouts, bacon and dolcelatte
This recipe could have easily been included in the OIL section, but the way I cooked it here and the way I think you’ll prefer is with a pretty obvious, light and creamy sauce made from the dolcelatte. Sprouts in anything to me signals autumn or winter and I think this is a fantastic ‘colder season’ pasta dish. There’s a lot going on flavour wise with the blue cheese, bacon, sherry and sprouts, and I challenge even die-hard sprout haters to give this a go.
WHAT YOU'LL NEED TO DO
(scroll down for the full method)
prepare the cheeses
fry the bacon
boil the sprouts
cook the pasta
flambée sprouts and bacon
add pasta to sauce
add ingredients to pasta

fusilloni with brussels sprouts, bacon and dolcelatte
INGREDIENTS
FOR FOUR PEOPLE
approx 200g smoked bacon
approx 400g brussels sprouts
sweet/medium sherry to taste
approx 150g dolcelatte
approx 150g of pecorino,
or a 50:50 mix of pecorino & parmesan
black pepper to taste
PASTA 400g
dry tortiglioni
MANTECATURA (?)
slight

METHOD
Cut the bacon into small pieces and then dry-fry it on a medium heat, allowing some of the fat to render. When that's happened increase the heat and flambé it in some sweet sherry. When the alcohol has burnt off and the majority of the sherry juice evaporated, set aside. Boil water for sprouts and pasta, and cook the sprouts (cut in half or quarters if they're large ones) first. Remember that sprouts are done while they still bright green - check them from time to time and don’t over cook.

Once the pasta is just past ‘al dente’ but not overcooked, transfer to a pan where you can make a ‘cacio-pepe’ type sauce. Add a ladle of starchy water from the pasta, add a little of the graated cheese, and, off the heat, begin to mix into a cream. As you do, begin to add small pieces of dolcelatte; keep mixing so the dolcelatte begins to melt and the pecorino forms a creamy sauce with the water. Flanmbée the sprouts in a splash of cream sherry, with the bacon. Let ALL the sherry juices evaporate, add to the pasta combined with the sauce. Return the sauce to a low heat if you need to warm the pan a little but do it on hardly any heat and be very careful not to get the cheese to split. Serve with plenty of freshly ground black pepper.
NUTRITION per serving
KCAL: 634
Fat (g): 38
Sat Fat (g): 22.2
Carb (g): 32.1
Sug (g): 4.2
Fibre(g): 7.4
Prot (g): 37.3
Salt (g): 4.27

