Cacio e Pepe Brussels Sprouts and Mushrooms

I originally made this as a fun Christmas recipe, but I never ended up posting it because the holidays were crazy busy! I’m excited to share this now because it’s the perfect comfort dish, with the benefits of…well, vegetables. I used to be a cream of spinach gal, but now I’m a cacio e pepe Brussels sprouts and mushroom gal. Woohoo!

Real quick! A little info:

If you want to go straight to the ingredients and method, be my guest. But, before you do, I want you to understand why I included cornstarch in this recipe. Traditional cacio e pepe is a pasta dish which translates to “cheese and pepper.” The cheesy peppery sauce consists of 3 main ingredients: pasta water (AKA starchy water,) Pecorino Romano (a hard, salty Italian cheese) and crushed black peppercorns. Soooo how do you get starchy water with this veggie recipe?! Well, considering that we aren’t making pasta, I decided to use corn starch. If you can’t bear the idea of making sauce with corn starch water, you can make a small portion of pasta (using 1 cup of water) and save the noodles for another time.

And now, let me break the recipe down for you: sautéed shaved Brussels sprouts and cremini mushrooms coated in a cheesy peppery sauce. ENJOY.