A very mingled vegetable pasta with yellow trumpet mushrooms, brussel sprouts, leeks, garlic, sake, just a touch of heavy cream, parmesan and freshly ground black pepper.
It surprises me how few people appreciate the brussel sprout. If handled the right way, and for me this is to properly char it in a smoking hot pan, before cooking it just enough to soften it but still retain the bite, it has such a unique, earthy, leafy flavour.
Cook the pasta of your choice in a lot of salted water to al dente. Drain but keep 1/4 cup of the water for the sauce, and keep pasta submerged in water until use.
In a non stick pan, over high heat, sear:
Yellow trumpet mushrooms, 2 cups
Remove mushrooms on a plate. Add just a touch of olive oil to the pan and sprinkle salt evenly over the surface. Add, cut face down:
Brussels sprouts, outer leaves trimmed, and cut in two heightwise, i.e retaining the stem on both halfs, about 10 - 15 pcs
Let them char well on the cut side, then flip them and char them on the other side as well. This should take about a 5 minutes. Add:
Sake, 2 tbsp, and allow the alcohol to evaporate
Turn heat way down, add just enough water to the pan to barely cover the surface and create some steam, which you will capture by putting a lid that fits on the pan. Let the sprouts soften through the steam, so add a few more drops of water if necessary. This should not take more then 10 minutes. The tip of a pointy knife should be able to pierce the sprout but without it falling apart. You want to retain the bite. Remove sprouts on a plate.
Wipe the pan clean, increase heat to medium and add some olive oil. Add:
Leeks, thin rounds from one big pc
Garlic, finely chopped, 3 cloves
When they start to colour and soften deglaze with some more sake. Add 2 tbsp of the reserved pasta water, and:
Heavy cream, 1,5 tbsps
Salt, to taste
Black Pepper, ground, to taste
Let it gently bubble a couple of minutes, add the pasta and swirl around to coat evenly. Turn heat off, add the mushrooms and sprouts and mix together.
Serve with a lot of grated parmesan, it goes so well with the sprouts apart from the rest, and more freshly ground black pepper.