Double Fish Feature with Chestnut Pasta

“Let there be fish with Brussels sprouts”, wished my wife and no objection helped - it had to be puzzled creatively until a suitable combination was created. And behold it was good.

Since I was making chicken broth and beef jus at the same time, we dispensed with the appetizer for this dinner for 2.

• 500g Brussels sprouts

I clean them first, carefully removing the stalk. Then I blanch the florets for 1 minute and rinse cold. Now I can pull off the outer, green leaves. I save the still hard yellow seeds of the florets for another meal. I pat the leaves dry and set them aside.

• 250g chestnuts

I put them into the oven at 200°. After 40 minutes they are cooked, I put them in a bowl and pour boiling water over them. So after a short time even the inner furry shells can be easily peeled off. As always with organic maroons, it’s a matter of luck how many inhabitants I bought along.

This time I end up with about 130g of cleaned portion. I crush the chestnuts in a blender and add the crumbs with the dough ingredients.

• 400g flour
• 4 eggs
• a little salt

into a mixing bowl, where I knead the ingredients into a pasta dough (I only need 1/3 of the dough for this recipe, the rest is frozen in 2 parts). The smaller the chestnut pieces, the easier it is to make pasta later. Perfectionists still sift the chestnuts, I don’t do that. The dough rests for 45 minutes, then I turn it through the pasta machine until I make tagliatelle at strength 5. The pasta dries slightly on a kitchen towel and stays there until further use.

Now I make the sauce. For this I take

• 200g whipped cream
• 1 pinch of vanilla
• 1/2 tsp piment d’Espelette
• 100 ml homemade chicken stock
• some fish demi-glace
• salt

and slowly cook it into a thick sauce. Now I sauté the Brussels sprouts briefly so that the leaves are hot and remain just crisp. I season classically with pepper, salt, nutmeg. At the same time I fry

• 2 gurnard fillets
• 2 monkfish cheeks
• 2 shrimps

in a little butter/oil for about 7 minutes. The shrimp doesn’t really need to be here, but gives a nice color contrast. The pasta water is also already boiling and I cook the pasta in 4 minutes.

Finally, I arrange the dish on preheated plates and devour it in no time.

one-plate-dish of chestnut tagliatelle, with cream sauce, with plucked brussels sprouts leaves, with slightly grilled sea robin fillet, with slightly grilled monkfish cheek, with one slightly grilled shrimp, very photorealistic, food magazine style, award-winning photo, long lens, depth of field, soft light, shot from material height, photo of the year, award-winning photo, embedded in restaurant scenery, well-lit, unreal engine