Day 199: slick sprouts

I hardly recognise myself these days; a once gemmiferaphobe now turned lover. I’ll not bore you with stories of the tantrums thrown and tears shed on Christmas Day as a child - when I had to force down the one compulsory sprout of the year if I wanted to get extra helpings of sausage and bacon rolls - but I did genuinely really dislike them. In recent years I discovered this was probably due to them being overcooked and then kept warm in the hostess trolley for several hours - not to mention the horribly soggy, khaki, nuclear balls of bitterness served on school dinners! Long story short, I am very happy with my new love.

So, today, I bring you a big bowl of sprouts. A very glorious bowl of sprouts, to be precise: slicked in a salty, buttery marsala syrup; studded abundantly with pancetta and sweet, nutty chestnuts; and flecked generously with the clean, aromatic earthiness of fresh parsley. Day 199 is Nigella’s Brussels Sprouts with Chestnuts, Pancetta and Parsley.

Nigella’s Brussels Sprouts with Chestnuts, Pancetta and Parsley

The recipe for these can be found on p123 of Christmas and on nigella.com (link below).