This new take on Brussels sprouts has led to permanent spots for the vegetable on the menus of two local pizzerias: Pitch Coal-Fire Pizzeria in Dundee and Dante Pizzeria Napoletana in west Omaha.

Both restaurants opened about two years ago with the mini-me cabbages on their menus.

Brussels sprouts have been popular in restaurants on the East and West Coasts — especially in New York and California, where cities have large Italian populations — for about five years, said chef Jeff Everroad at Pitch.

He was eager to have the vegetable on the menu when Pitch opened, and so was Pitch's owner, Willy Theisen. Brussels sprouts fit in with the restaurant's modern take on main courses, salads and pizzas that showcase local and seasonal products.

"We sell them like crazy, about 20 orders a night," Everroad said. They're so popular the restaurant planted Brussels sprouts in a garden near Eppley Airfield last year. As it happened, flooding ruined any chance of a harvest in 2011, but the chef holds out hope for 2012.

The Pitch approach to the vegetable is to blanch them first. (That means cooking in boiling water until three-fourths done, plunging the sprouts into ice water to stop the cooking and then draining them.) Chefs then look over the sprouts and cut the larger ones into halves.

Then when a customer orders Brussels sprouts, a Pitch chef will sauté them in olive oil with sliced pancetta (an Italian-style bacon that isn't smoked), cooking the vegetable until it's well-browned but not charred.

"They have to have quite a bit of color on them to give them some extra flavor," Everroad said.

A.J. Swanda

At Dante Pizzeria, the approach is similar. The chefs start with blanching, then sauté the sprouts with pancetta produced at La Quercia in Norwalk, Iowa. The pancetta goes into the pan first so the fat from the pork is what's used for sautéing, according to Dante sous chef A.J. Swanda. When the sprouts are nicely browned, they make a four-minute trip through a hot oven.

"I think what makes them enjoyable is that they are cooked in our wood-fired oven with that delicious pork fat," Swanda said. The sprouts are an integral part of the restaurant's wide-ranging menu, and patrons place about 30 orders on a weekend night. Occasionally the demand is so great that the kitchen runs out, he said.

Chefs at two Omaha restaurants emphasizing local produce say they would serve Brussels sprouts more often if they could get them from regional producers.

"We serve them when they are available, and those times are few and far between," said Clayton Chapman, of The Grey Plume at Midtown Crossing. "We'll get a small batch and they disappear. We've had them just a few times this winter."

Chapman said another way to enjoy Brussels sprouts is to separate the leaves, taking off all but the core. Blanch the cores and sear them in bacon fat. Then sauté the loose leaves in butter until nicely browned. Finish with sprinkles of lemon juice and chopped parsley.

Paul Kulik

Paul Kulik of the Boiler Room Restaurant in the Old Market said his local suppliers were thwarted by the weather in 2011. Brussels sprouts require 120 days of mild growing weather. His growers didn't get that and his patrons missed their sprouts this year, Kulik said.

Although Brussels sprouts are related to the cabbage family and look like tiny cabbage heads, they don't grow close to the ground like heads of cabbages. The plant is a long stalk and the sprouts grow in rows along the stalk. The Belgians got a reputation for growing the vegetable and the name of their capital, Brussels, has long been attached to the name of the sprouts.

"Brussels sprouts pick up a really, great savory quality when they're charred," Kulik said. "Oven-roasted in really high heat: That's a really good application for Brussels sprouts. They caramelize really well. They have a good sugar content to them, and when you cook them in animal fats they get savory-sweet, with a little bit of bitter. That balances well with fat. So that's when you can throw in bacon, pulled duck, smoked ham hocks, duck cracklings or pancetta. That rich, creamy fattiness pairs extremely well with that bitterness. Bitterness provides some backbone and lift to something that's super rich and saturated, a great savory richness.

"Makes for a really exciting bite."

McFoster's Natural Kind Cafe, a Midtown spot that offers a lot of vegetarian options, has served Brussels sprouts every day of the week for more than 15 years. The vegetable is the standard accompaniment for chicken-artichoke Mornay and for blackened tempeh-artichoke Mornay.

McFoster's kitchen manager Justin Tuttle says customers also order Brussels sprouts as a side dish and place special orders for them at Sunday brunches when the vegetable is not on the menu.

Still, many diners are not so bold when it comes to Brussels sprouts.

Brian and Kesa Kenny

Some restaurant patrons are afraid to try them when they turn up as part of meal, said Kenny, the Finicky Frank's chef.

"I force them here," she said. "I say: 'If you don't try a bite, I'm calling your mother.'

"If they just try a bite, the person sitting with them will probably ask for a side order of them. It is interesting how many people are scared of them."

Chapman, at The Grey Plume, said many patrons seem deterred by memories of how the vegetable was presented in childhood.

"I think they are a great winter vegetable," he said. "It takes a little conditioning to teach ourselves that there are ways to cook Brussels sprouts so they taste delicious."

Contact the writer:

402-444-1052, jane.palmer@owh.com