Last night I made some Tortellini Carbonata, and I wanted to have a green on the side, but we had just eaten salad, and the okra in the store didn’t look great.  Luckily I saw brussels sprouts and had wanted to try making them, so I Googled a recipe that wouldn’t require buying anymore ingredients.

Crispy Brussels Sprouts with Bacon

Ingredients:

• 8-10 small brussels sprouts
• 2 strips of bacon, cut into smaller pieces
• 2 gloves of garlic
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 2 tablespoons rock salt, sea salt or kosher salt
• Salt and pepper

Bring a pot of water to boil and add salt.  While the water is warming up, peel off any bad leaves from the brussels sprouts and wash them.  Once it starts boiling, put the brussels in for about 4 minutes.  Once they’re done, drain them and then cool them off in cold running water — aka blanching.  Then cut the sprouts in half, lengthwise.

Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat.  Add the bacon pieces and cook for a minute.  Then add the brussels sprouts and fry until the bacon is crispy and the brussels get a little brown around the edges.  Stir in the garlic and let it fry for just another minute.  Drain the oil from the sprouts and serve hot!

Results: We LOVED it!  I was nervous since it’d never cooked brussels before, but this was easy to do and tasted great.  I even sprinkled some parmesan cheese on top before I ate them – you can never have enough cheese.  The recipe said to heat the oil on high before adding the brussels, but I went closer to medium heat so the oil wouldn’t pop and splatter as much.  Hunter cleaned his bowl, so we’ll definitely be making this recipe again.