Today’s recipe requires time and ambition. It came to me on five pages and at first frightened me, but I have since made friends with it in all of its complexity.

The mission, should you choose to accept it, is a pineapple upside-down cake with a vanilla sauce, as served at Ruscello, the restaurant at Nordstrom in Ala Moana Center. It was that sauce that prompted Deborah Di Bella to ask for the recipe.

“It is simply delicious!!” she wrote.

Ruscello chef Matt Dwyer came through not just with the formula for the sauce, but for the cake and all its components.

Here’s the thing: To make the full dessert as served at Ruscello you’ve got to roast pineapple slices, use some of those slices to make the vanilla sauce, use some of that sauce to make a glaze, then use that glaze — and more roasted pineapple — to complete the cake. Then you serve the cake in a pool of Di Bella’s favorite sauce, with torn bits of basil leaves.

But for those unwilling to take on this entire mission, you can break the recipe down to its component parts and just make the ones you’re really interested in, to wit:

>> The roasted pineapple slices can be served with ham or roasted meats. Chop them up for salsa, or serve over ice cream.

>> The vanilla sauce would be good with any white cake, especially one with nuts, Dwyer said. Or pour it over ice cream. “You could drink it, it’s so delicious,” he said.

>> The glaze could be used to glaze a ham, or to add a touch of butteriness to another dessert.

>> The cake could be served naked — no sauce, glaze or pineapple — as a basic from-scratch vanilla cake.

The full recipe was developed by a team of chefs in Nordstrom’s test kitchens, as are almost all the chain’s recipes, Dwyer said. Local chefs select dishes from a menu of choices.

“My main job is to make sure these are executed on a daily basis up to Nordstrom standards,” he said.

The pineapple cake seemed a good local choice. “No. 1 is the pineapple, it speaks to Hawaii,” Dwyer said. It has proved to be a favorite at Ruscello.

A few cooking notes before you embark on this project:

>> At Ruscello the cakes are baked individually in 5-inch foil pie pans. As an alternative you can use two 9-inch-square cake pans.

>> The pineapple slices are seasoned with pink peppercorns, which Dwyer said add an element of sweetness as well as a pop of color. If you don’t have pink peppercorns, don’t substitute with black, the chef said. It’s better to just leave the pepper out.

>> The recipe calls for vanilla bean paste, which means scraping out the insides of several vanilla bean pods. The restaurant buys a high-quality jarred paste, which is quite expensive. If either of these options is beyond you, substitute with vanilla extract.

The recipe is presented here as mini-recipes in the order that you’ll need to tackle them if you plan to make the full dessert. If you prefer to mix and match, just select the parts of the recipe that suit your purpose.

RUSCELLO’S PINEAPPLE BROWN BUTTER CAKE

By Nordstrom

• >> Part 1: Roasted Pineapple
• 30 slices canned pineapple (from 3 20-ounce cans)
• 1 tablespoon ground pink peppercorns (optional, do not substitute with black peppercorns)
• Heat oven to 325 degrees. Drain pineapples and reserve juice to make buttermilk vanilla sauce. Place slices on baking sheet lined with parchment.
• Sprinkle pineapple slices evenly with pepper, if using. Bake 30-35 minutes, until rings have released their moisture and look partly dry with some color around the edges. Set aside to cool.

• >> Part 2: Buttermilk Vanilla Sauce
• 3 cups buttermilk
• 3 cups pineapple juice
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
• 12 pieces roasted pineapple, cut in 1-inch pieces
• Pour buttermilk into wide, shallow pan.
• Combine pineapple juice, sugar and vanilla bean paste in saucepan over medium-high heat; simmer 15 minutes to reduce mixture by half, to a medium-thick consistency. Cool.
• Pour mixture into buttermilk. Add pineapple pieces to pan. Set aside.

• >> Part 3: Brown Butter Glaze
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup buttermilk vanilla sauce
• Heat butter in saucepan over low heat 5-6 minutes until it turns a golden brown. Cool to room temperature.
• Add vanilla and buttermilk vanilla sauce (don’t pick up any of the pineapple pieces in the sauce); whisk to incorporate. Keep warm until cakes are baked.

• >> Part 4: Cake
• 18 rings roasted pineapple
• 2 pounds flour (about 6-2/3 cups)
• 2 pounds sugar (about 4 cups)
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 2 tablespoons vanilla
• 1 pound unsalted butter, room temperature
• 10 large eggs
• Brown butter glaze
• 18 basil leaves

Heat oven to 300 degrees. Grease 18 5-inch disposable foil pie pans or 2 9-inch-square cake pans. Place 1 pineapple ring in each pie pan or line them up in a single layer in baking pans.

Combine flour, sugar, salt, baking power and baking soda in mixing bowl. Mix well.

On low speed add buttermilk and vanilla; mix until incorporated. Do not over-mix. Add butter and mix on low 30 seconds. Scrape down sides, then add eggs one or two at a time, mixing on low until incorporated. Scrape sides and mix on medium speed 1-2 minutes.

Scoop batter into pans over pineapple pieces. Bake 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Poke holes all over cake using toothpick. Pour glaze over cake.

To serve, remove cakes from pie pans; turn over so pineapple slice is on top. Or cut cakes in baking pans into 18 squares; turn over. Ladle sauce onto center of each serving plate, including a few pieces of pineapple. Top with cake. Tear basil leaves and sprinkle pieces around cake.

Nutritional information unavailable.

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