In Season

Sprouts are one of those vegetables which seem to cause a paralysis of the culinary imagination

Sprouts are one of those vegetables which seem to cause a paralysis of the culinary imagination. We might dance coriander pestos or chilli oils around every other veg we eat, but with sprouts we remain steadfastly loyal to the idea that they should simply be boiled and dotted with a bit of butter, and then eaten as an accompaniment to some meat.

So one evening, we thought: to hell, let's do something different with the first sprouts of the season, and my wife said "anchovies" and I said "lemon zest" and we had some fresh spinach tagliatelle sitting there, and a jar of fine red pepper flakes and a clove of garlic left over from something else, and here is what we did.

I put half a tablespoon each of butter and olive oil in a pan and gently sauteed the finely sliced clove of garlic. I added six decent anchovy fillets, and stirred them around so that they broke up into a nice, slithery sauce in the pan. I par-boiled about 15 trimmed and peeled brussels sprouts for about five minutes, drained them and cooled them quickly and then chopped them roughly, then I added them to the pan and let them warm through in the anchovy sauce.

At the same time, I made some breadcrumbs - about one good handful - in the food processor, and then fried them in half a tablespoon of butter in another pan. The water was brought to the boil, in went the pasta for just over a minute, then it was drained and flopped into the pan with the sprouts and the anchovy sauce. The contents were all turned over, and then the breadcrumbs were added. I sprinkled in about two teaspoons of very finely chopped lemon zest, and a sprinkle of red pepper flakes, tossed everything together and spooned it out onto warmed plates, with a final drizzle of good extra virgin olive oil to finish things off. In retrospect, I think some standard white pasta might have given a better colour contrast, but the flavour was splendid, and while the dish is simple to make, each detail is essential.