Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Parmesan

Before I dive into these roasted brussel sprouts, I’m going to sidetrack a bit on some stuff I’ve been up to as of late. The past month has flown by, and I think that’s because of the crazy amount of stuff I’ve packed into it (as per usual…old habits die hard AMIRITE?) I’ve occupied myself with the following(!):

• I’ve been hard at work getting all the First We Eat workshops for next year lined up (will be announcing them soon I promise!), and also putting together a special surprise First We Eat project that I’m realllllly excited to share with you guys in December. You can sign up for my workshop mailing list to get a head’s up when registration opens, woohoo!!
• I wrote an article about spooky interior design for Remodelista, you can take a look at it here! In it I talk at length about my love of taxidermy, throwing gauze everywhere, and drawing design inspiration from classy-yet-terrifying horror films. I think you will be pleased 🙂
• Kimberly Hasselbrink from The Year in Food came over today and we made some legit amazing roasted squash & cheese empanadas, which I’ll be sharing on the blog next month. YUM!
• I drove up to the Seattle area to visit Tiffany from Oh Honey Bakes at her new *insanely* picturesque farm, (you can see what I mean). We made a cinnamon roll pie (yes, it was as amazing as it sounds) from my friend Linda Lomelino’s new cookbook, Lomelino’s Pies. It was a whirlwind trip but super fun, and I’ll be sharing the recipe and photos with you guys in the coming weeks!
• I’ve taken over the Orvis instagram feed this past week and am bombarding their insta stories with a mixture of food pictures and videos of Ralph trying to hold in all his excitement barks. Generally, people seem to be like it!
• My friend Danielle hosted an amazing ‘friendsgiving’ dinner at her new studio space, Tendue. It was such a blast and good *LORD* she has created an incredible venue. So proud of her!!
• Speaking of studio spaces, Jeremy and I are one light-fixture-installation-away from being done turning the garage into a shooting space for me, YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!
• It’s Jeremy’s birthday week, so I got him surprise tickets to see David Sedaris live on Tuesday (although the surprise bit was ruined when Jeremy accidentally looked at my google calendar last week and got confused that I was seeing David Sedaris the night we were “supposed” to be having dinner with friends. Boo-urns!) He was SOOOoooOOOoo hilarious—if you ever get a chance to see Sedaris do a reading live I can’t recommend it highly enough.
• I’ve really gone into the deep end with my true-crime podcast obsession. Newest recommendation is ‘Dirty John’, it only 6 episodes and the season wraps up in a tidy little bow of awesomeness. Give it a listen!
• Jeremy and I made a new video, and this one is on how to make brussel sprouts 😀 You can watch it below and subscribe to my youtube channel here.

There’s more I could talk about—but that bullet point list looks overwhelming even to me and I’m the one that wrote it—so I’m going to save the rest for next week’s post. Instead, let’s move onto talking more about these super easy and tasty roasted brussel sprouts! They are my favorite roasted vegetable because their leafy layers caramelize as they cook in the oven, resulting in a wonderfully sweet-yet-savory ball of flavor.

My mother detests brussel sprouts, because her mother (my grandmother) would either boil or steam them and served them regularly as the obligatory vegetable requirement at dinner. I feel like this was super common in her generation, and it scarred the noses (have you smelled steamed brussel sprouts? It ain’t great.) and tastebuds millions of people, turning them away from a vegetable with so much more to give than a farty odor and mushy texture. Roasting them really changes the whole ballgame with these guys, it caramelizes all the natural sugars within them and creates a wonderfully nutty, umami, and slightly sweet flavor, while making the exterior leaves nice and crispy and the interior leaves nice and soft. Hence the appeal of roasted brussel sprouts. It’s like the difference between throwing a whole tomato in a pot of boiling water and then fishing it out and serving it vs. roasting it on a pan. Same ingredient, but verrrrrrry different flavor and texture profiles.

And as you can see from my bullet-points, I’m usually pressed for time, and am always looking for a quick way to throw some vegetables in the oven as a nice hands-off side dish, so this roasted brussel sprouts recipe fits the bill perfectly. It just involves cutting them in half, then tossing them with salt, pepper, olive oil, salami, and parmesan and sliding them into the oven. If you want to make it vegetarian, you can simply omit the salami (but if you’re not I highly recommend including it, those salty little pork bits taste *SO* good with the brussels!)

If you haven’t finished putting your Thanksgiving menu together yet, I highly recommend adding this to it! I also have my favorite pear-glazed turkey recipe, cast iron cornbread leek and sausage stuffing, salted rose and honey pie, and mulled wine if you’re looking for some more menu additions. Hope you guys enjoy this recipe, and I’ll be back next week with one last pie recipe + suggestion before Thanksgiving, woohoo!!!

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Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Parmesan and Salami

Course Appetizer

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes

Total Time 50 minutes

Servings 1 people

Author Eva Kosmas Flores

Ingredients

• 1 pound brussel sprouts
• 1 1/2 ounces quality cured salami (cute into roughly 1/4-inch cubes
• 1 1/2 ounces shaved parmesan cheese
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon flake sea saly
• 1 pinch cracked black pepper

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Cut off the very tip of the stem of each brussel sprout and then cut it in half lengthwise. Toss it in a large bowl with the salami, parmesan, olive oil, salt, and pepper until coated. Transfer the contents to a small casserole dish or ceramic baker and place the dish in the oven.

2. Roast until the brussel sprouts have turned golden and the tips are a nice golden brown, about 35 to 40 minutes. Remove and allow to cool for 5 minutes before serving.