Sprout & Pea

When my mom and I hand made quinoa ravi­oli a few weeks ago, I wanted to top it with some­thing light to let the home­made fla­vors and tex­tures shine. So, we decided to make a lit­tle sage, shal­lot and but­ter sauce. Unfor­tu­nately, not used to the elec­tric stove that my mom has at home, I wound up burn­ing the shal­lots a bit, but I still enjoyed the slightly crisp, deli­cious taste. The fla­vors screamed win­ter and I wanted to try mak­ing this sauce again when I returned home to 32 degree Brooklyn.

Back in the com­forts of my gas stove, I cooked some quinoa lin­guine and tossed all of my ingre­di­ents into a pan over low heat and decided to add some brus­sels sprouts for tex­ture and fla­vor. I topped it with some shaved grana padano cheese and a few toasted pine nuts and was in win­ter com­fort food heaven. This might also be one of the most sim­ple dishes I’ve made in some time. Gear up your win­ter appetites, folks. This dish will please your crav­ings. Here’s how to make it…

1 box quinoa lin­guine
6 tbs but­ter
1 large shal­lot
1 tbs fresh chopped sage
1 cup brus­sels sprouts chopped thin like con­fetti
Grana Padano to sprin­kle on top
Salt and pep­per to taste

Boil lin­guine in a large pot with water and a lit­tle bit of olive oil. Cook for 9 min­utes. While the lin­guine is cook­ing, add but­ter to pan over medium heat. Once but­ter melts, add shal­lots and saute until soft­ened. Add sage and brus­sels sprouts and let cook over medium heat until brus­sels sprouts are soft. Drain lin­guine, return to pot and pour sauce over pasta. Top with grated grana padano cheese or your choice of fresh grated parme­san cheese.