Nothing like oven roasting Brussels sprouts to fill the house with a rich food aroma. I needed to come up with a recipe that would feed 25 as a side dish, and survive a 1 hour trip down the freeway. I decided to make a gratin out of roasted Brussels sprouts and cover them with a Béchamel sauce, since sauce will cover a multitude of sins.
I have adjusted quantities by 1/4th, so the following should be plenty to serve 6 –8 as a side dish.
Ingredients:
- 2 lbs Brussels sprouts, washed, trimmed, outer leaves removed and cut in half.
- 1 medium sized onion roughly cut into 3/4” pieces
- 4 pieces of thick cut bacon, cut into 1/2” strips
- 1 TBs butter
- 1 TBs flour
- 1 cup of milk
- Heavy cream
- Salt and pepper
- Dried Thyme
- Cayenne pepper
- Truffle oil (optional)
- Grated parmesan
- Panko bread crumbs
- Olive oil
- Balsamic vinegar
Spread out halved sprouts on a foil covered baking sheet with the cut sides up. Whisk together a 1/4 cup olive oil and 1 TBs balsamic vinegar and drizzle over sprouts. Salt and pepper and sprinkle by hand with a little thyme (go easy on the thyme). Add cut onions to the pan. Drizzle with some more oil and vinegar.
Roast in a preheated 400 degree oven on the center rack for about 40 minutes turning every 10- -15 minutes until caramelized but not burned.
Meanwhile, in a heavy bottom dutch oven, fry bacon strips in a little oil until slightly crispy. Remove to a plate with paper towels. Wipe out excess oil from dutch oven.
Start the béchamel sauce before the sprouts go in the oven since it takes about an hour to complete. Using two heavy bottom sauce pans, make a roux from the butter and flour and cook gently for about 10 minutes. Make sure it doesn’t brown. While the roux is cooking, heat the milk in the other sauce pan until steaming. Pour the milk into the hot roux and whisk briskly until smooth. Simmer the sauce on low , skim and stir frequently to keep it from scalding. Stir in a couple ounces of cream at the very end to finish and simmer for another 5 minutes or so. Adding a couple drops of truffle oil at a time and a pinch of cayenne, season to taste.
Remove sprout and onion mixture from the oven. Spread bacon pieces over the pan and sprinkle liberally with grated parmesan cheese. Spoon gently into the dutch oven, pour the sauce over. Sprinkle the top with a combination of Panko and parmesan. Bake uncovered in a 350 degree oven until bubbling and topping is slightly browned.
Roux ready for the hot milk
8 lbs of sprouts and onions starting to roast
Finished sprouts, onions, bacon, parmesan (melted now) before adding sauce and topping
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