Farfalle with Sauteed Brussels Sprouts

Normally for Presto Pasta Nights, I like to do a main dish for my entry. This week, I went another route...sort of. I recently received a copy of Martha Stewart's Dinner at Home and I'll be writing all about it over at Cookbooks4EveryKitchen very soon. It's pretty spectacular...but I'll save that for later.

I just realized that it's already Thursday and I haven't sent anything to Kait over at Pots and Plots. She's our wonderful PPN host this week. You still have time to send her your last minute pasta delight. Just drop her a line with a link to your post... potsandplots (at) gmail (dot) com and cc me...ruth (at) 4everykitchen (dot) com.

Back to my dilemma...Martha's new book is divided by season and each season has tons of menu ideas...that's right...not just tons of recipes, but entire menu ideas. For PPN I was just going to find a pasta that looked good and ...voila!

But in the Winter section, one of the menus caught my attention:

Cheese Fondue,

Crisp Pork Cutlets (with an intriquing Caraway Sour Cream Sauce),

Egg Noodles with Sauteed Brussels Sprouts Leaves for the main course

and for dessert...Cherry Compote over Chocolate Ice Cream.

I knew I had to make the Crisp Cutlets and I was very tempted to the Grated Potato Cake from Winter Menu #10 (Duck Breast with Fig Sauce, Braised Red Cabbage, and Hazelnut Brittle over Ice Cream for dessert...just to make you drool), but I really needed a pasta dish for Kait.

Loving Brussels Sprouts as I do, made the choice easy. I used Farfalle, because I just think they're so cute. In fact, the green of the lightly sauteed Brussels Sprouts and the chopped parsley made me feel like Spring had arrived early...which was perfect for a dreary, gray & cold day. The lemon zest and juice, along with the capers added a salty punch and the butter just softened the dish and made the sauce silky. I don't even have to mention the garlic factor....I'm drooling. Perhaps it's time to grab what little was left over for a snack.

One really special thing about pasta...it's like that little black dress, you can dress it up, dress it down, be sparkly for "the big event" or downplay it for a more casual setting. And this quick and easy pasta is perfect as a side, even better all by itself. As good as the cutlet and sauce was...the pasta stole the show!

Kait, thanks for hosting this week's Presto Pasta Night, I'm really looking forward to seeing all those other choices.

Everyone else...get those pasta dishes over to Kait - potsandplots (at) gmail (dot) com and if you're interested in hosting a Presto Pasta Night Roundup yourself, drop me a line.