Thursday, May 3, 2012

Wednesday is Prince Spaghetti Day

Wednesday is Prince spaghetti day, at least in the Greater Boston area.  Does the rest of the country know about this?  This commercial is a classic to anyone who grew up in the area.



 

I honored the tradition this Wednesday with pasta day, though not Prince, serving my husbands favorite rigatoni with meat sauce.  I took a short cut with bottled tomato basil sauce, but spiced it up with sauteed onion and sweet Italian sausage.  For the veggie, I roasted Brussels sprouts & Campari tomatoes then drizzled with a balsamic reduction.  Both veggie & pasta had sweet and savory notes, and were hearty yet somehow light at the same time.

Today, Thursday, is leftover day and I couldn't be happier eating this meal reheated for lunch!



Roasted Brussels Sprouts w/Balsamic Reduction
  • 1 pound Brussels sprouts
  • 2 TBS olive oil
  • 1/3 balsamic vinegar
  • 1/4 cup sugar
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Trim/clean the Brussels sprouts, then cut in half. Toss with olive oil then arrange on baking sheet. Roast until brown, 25 to 30 minutes, turning/tossing halfway to ensure even color.

Combine the balsamic vinegar and sugar in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low and reduce until very thick, about 15 minutes.  Since the sugar content is so high, be careful not to burn the mixture.  (also, boiling sugar is very hot...be careful not to burn your tongue when tasting!)

Drizzle the balsamic reduction over the roasted sprouts.  Good hot, room temperature, or even chilled as part of a salad.

Variations can be made to this recipe, for example I added quarted Campari tomatoes during the last 5-10 minutes of cooking time.  Roughly chopped garlic could be a nice touch, and I bet some crispy crumbled bacon would be killer.
 

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