Roasted Brussels Sprouts with fruits

Everyone raves about this brussels sprouts dish. Though I tend to make all recipes my own with my twists and variations, I rarely tweak this recipe from The Splendid Table, an NPR weekly radio show - I subscribe to their free weekly recipe email from www.splendidtable.publicradio.org/ (have gotten a lot of great recipes from them!).

 

I so crave this dish, that I make it often. We especially like it with grilled, smoked salmon. Monte dumps it on top of his salmon.

ROASTED BRUSSELS SPROUTS

2 1/2 lbs brussels sprouts, halved if small or quartered if large

(A key when roasting vegetables is to have a lot of the ingredients chunked about the same size)

1 large onion, cut into 1-inch chunks

2 apples (any kind, I tend to use Granny Smith), cored and cut in 1-inch pieces

2 firm ripe Anjou or Comice pears, cored and cut

2-3 slices bacon, cut in pieces

1/2 tsp each thyme and sage (fresh is always best if you have it, and use more)

5-6 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped

1/3 cup good tasting extra-virgin olive oil

1/8 tsp spicy red pepper flakes

1 Tb brown sugar (I use Sucanat - unprocessed sugar cane)

Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste



Toss all together. Bake in a 450 degree oven on a very large shallow pan (I line it with foil). You want the mixture to spread into a single layer. Stir it a couple times - baking about 40 minutes to an hour till nicely browned.



It, like the smoked salmon, is great leftover cold on lettuce as a salad.