butternut squash soup

I hope it doesn't do injustice to this recipe to start a post with another apology, but I feel it's due. Sorry for 2 soup posts in a row. But this one is so good you won't mind, I promise.

Butternut squash soup is one of those things, like risotto; you order it in a restaurant and love it, but assume it's too complicated to make at home. But, like most vegetable-cream soups, it's simply a matter of vegetables cooked in broth until tender, blended, with some cream stirred in at the end. This recipe, another one adapted from The New England Soup Factory cookbook (working my way through one page at a time), is stunning. It adds apple and parsnip to the butternut base, and it's served with a little bit of gorgonzola cheese to counter the sweetness.

Grocery list: 4 T butter, 2 garlic cloves, 1 large onion, 2 apples, 3 carrots, 2 parsnips, 1-2 stalks celery, 1 2-pound butternut squash, 8 cups chicken stock (preferably homemade, covered before here), 1 T worcestershire sauce, 3 T brown sugar, 1.5 c cream (I used half-and-half and it was perfect and still plenty guilty enough), gorgonzola cheese for garnish.



Start by prepping all the vegetables: peel, remove seeds if applicable, dice.



Melt the butter in a large soup pot over medium high heat, and add all the vegetables. Saute for 10 minutes, then add the chicken stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium so it's just simmering, and cook until the vegetables are soft (about 35 minutes more).



Turn off the heat, and stir in the worcestershire and the brown sugar. Season the soup with salt and pepper.



Like all cream soups, you want to blend it *before* you add the cream, which is last. So, either with an immersion blender, or by moving batches of the soup to a blender (carefully - and only fill up the blender half way with each batch, so you don't splatter boiling hot soup all over yourself - the things I learned before having a stick blender).



Finally, return the soup to the pot if you've used a blender, and stir in the cream. You might need to turn the soup back on low heat, depending on how hot you like your soup.



To serve, place a spoonful or two of gorgonzola cheese crumbles in the bottom of a bowl, and spoon the soup on top. The book actually calls for an even more impressive garnish (crispy prosciutto and sauteed apple slices), but I skipped it.

double-beef chili

Chili is probably not the first thing that comes to mind when you're trying to plan a healthy dinner. But if you're careful not to pile on too much cheese and sour cream (ahem), it's actually a good balance. There's a ton of protein, in this case from both the ground sirloin and the trimmed brisket; there's fiber and more protein from kidney and black beans; there's tons of vitamins and antioxidants in the tomatoes, peppers and the butternut squash. And if you consider how well it freezes and reheats, it's basically the perfect one-dish meal. I was inspired to try brisket and butternut squash by a recipe I found in Bon Appetit months ago, although beyond these 2 ingredients, I put this together on my own.

Grocery list: 1 pound lean ground sirloin, 2 pounds brisket (trimmed of fat and cut into bite-size cubes), 1 butternut squash, 1-2 onions, garlic, 1 bell pepper, 2 cans of beans (kidney and/or black bean work well), 2-4 cups beef stock, 2 28-ounce cans crushed or diced tomatoes, chili spices (paprika, chili powder, cayenne pepper, cumin).



Start by chopping the vegetables for the base. Set a large dutch oven over medium-high heat, add a couple tablespoons of olive oil, and add the onion and pepper. After 2 minutes, add the garlic.



Stir well, then add the ground meat and break up with a spoon.



While the ground beef starts to cook, season the brisket with salt and pepper. I trimmed it of any excess fat I could find before cutting it into pieces. Add the brisket pieces to the pan and stir to combine.



The idea is to get the brisket pieces to brown a bit on the outside; you don't need to cook them all the way through because they will braise in the chili for hours. Once the meat is brown (only a few minutes), add the seasoning. I used about 3 T of chili powder, 1 tsp of cayenne, 1 tsp cumin, and 1 T paprika. I also added a few splashes of Frank's Red Hot. This part is really up to you - just remember you can always add heat later, but you can't take it away.



Drain and rinse the beans thoroughly. Add them to the pan, along with both cans of tomatoes (including the tomato juice). Stir to combine, and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to a slow simmer.



Finally, peel and cube the butternut squash into bite-size pieces, and add to the chili. Cook uncovered, adding beef stock every 30 minutes or so as the liquid evaporates.



I let this chili simmer all afternoon, so I added nearly a quart of beef stock over the course of the day, but you might need less. You can see in the picture above how much it has cooked down - this is just before I served it. Taste it and adjust the salt or spices as needed. To serve, ladle into bowls and top with sour cream, grated cheddar, even some chopped red onion or avocado.

butternut squash risotto

For regular readers of AHB, you may know there are a few things that I don't really follow a recipe for (meatloaf, meatballs, bolognese, lasagna, etc), and that includes risotto. Once you know the main base, you don't really pay attention to the full recipes. You start reading a recipe to see the combination of "filler" ingredients, and get ideas, and think about how that might fit in with versions you've already tried and liked. This always makes me feel like a "real" cook, since I can think about how different ingredients play off each other without feeling the need to blindly follow a recipe I have no clue about. But it leaves me with the tiny problem of crediting all the various ideas that go into a new risotto back to all the possible articles that may have contributed to it.

For this one, I had seen lots of risottos and pastas (and even a chili) that included butternut squash, since it's that time of year. There seems to be a consensus on adding some sort of salty complement to the sweetness of the squash (for example, adding squash to a beef brisket based chili, which I haven't tried yet but will). So what about using bacon, and the resulting bacon grease, as the starter for a risotto? I won't take credit for the idea, since I may have seen it multiple places, but I can't find anything exact. Anyway, here's what I did.

Grocery list: 1 cup arborio (risotto) rice, 1 cup white wine, 3 cups chicken stock, 3-4 slices bacon, 1/2 butternut squash (roasted and cut into cubes), 2 T minced fresh sage, 1 T minced fresh thyme, 1 small yellow onion, 2 cloves garlic.



Chop 3 slices of bacon into small pieces, and add to a heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Depending on the fat content of the bacon, you might want to add a touch more olive oil to the pan (I did).



After the bacon has cooked for a few minutes and started to crisp, continue with your risotto base. For me, that means adding a finely chopped onion (and a couple minced garlic cloves, which is different than most risottos where I use shallots) and about a tablespoon of chopped fresh thyme leaves. Because butternut squash tastes better with sage, I added 2 T minced fresh sage leaves here too. Stir and cook until the onions are translucent.



Add 1 cup of arborio rice and stir well. Allow to cook for 2-3 minutes, then add a glass of white wine (between 1/2 and 1 cup). Keep stirring until all the liquid is absorbed.



Heat 3-3.5 cups of chicken broth until it's steaming (either in the microwave or in a pot next to the risotto). The key is to have 4 total cups of liquid for every 1 cup of rice, so 1 cup white wine + 3 cups broth, etc. Stir in the broth 1 cup at a time, stirring after each addition until the liquid is absorbed. This will take about 15-20 minutes of cooking, stirring, adding broth, repeating.

Finally, stir in the cooked butternut squash pieces and season with salt and pepper to taste.

winter salad: roasted acorn squash, apples & blue cheese

After all the Thanksgiving dinners, I can only think about salads (and running 6 miles a day every day this week to make up for the pumpkin brownies my Gramma made). This is adapted from December 2008 Bon Appetit, which originally called for butternut squash but I substituted acorn. (Also note, this is half the original recipe -the original serves 10.)

Grocery list: (dressing) 1 T balsamic, 1 T lemon juice, 3 T good quality olive oil; (salad) 2 T balsamic, 1 tsp brown sugar, 1 2-pound butternut or acorn squash, 2 heads belgian endive, 1 fuji apple, 4 oz crumbled blue cheese, 1/4 c dried cranberries.



Start by roasting the squash. Cut the squash in half lengthwise, and scoop out the seeds. Peel and slice crosswise into 1/4 inch pieces. Arrange on a lined baking sheet and brush each piece with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for 5 minutes at 400 degrees. Whisk the balsamic and brown sugar together, then brush each piece of squash; return to the oven and roast for an additional 5 minutes.



Flip squash pieces and brush with remaining vinegar-sugar combination. Continue to roast until squash is fork-tender, about another 15 minutes. Allow to cool.

Trim the root ends of endive and arrange leaves on plates - about 5-6 leaves per plate, for 4 plates. Core the apple and cut into thin strips, and evenly distribute across plates. Place squash strips in center of each plate, and top with cheese and cranberries.

For the dressing, whisk the balsamic, lemon juice and olive oil with salt and pepper. Drizzle dressing over each salad and serve. This would also be nice with a few pieces of toasted walnuts too...

jamie oliver's rotolo of spinach, squash and ricotta

According to Jamie Oliver, he was discovered with this stuffed, rolled pasta dish called a rotolo (someone important saw him making it, and his TV chef career began). It's actually less labor-intensive than ravioli, since you are basically working with one giant stuffed piece of pasta instead of 30+. And if you really want to impress someone with dinner, it should be delicious, beautifully presented, and unique. This rotolo fits the bill perfectly.

Grocery list: 1 pound fresh pasta dough, 1/2 butternut squash (halved, deseeded), olive oil, 1 tsp coriander seeds, 1 tsp fennel, 1/2 a dried chili, handful of fresh oregano leaves, 2 cloves garlic, 1.5 pounds fresh spinach, butter, grated nutmeg, 5.5 oz ricotta, 2oz grated parmesan, fresh sage leaves.



Make pasta dough (after many batches, I've now settled on a 2 cups flour + 3 whole eggs + 3 yolks to make the perfect consistency).



Then, fix all pasta pieces together with a dab of water at the edges, so you have one large rectangular sheet of pasta.

Jamie's recipe calls for cubing the squash and seasoning with ground coriander, fennel and chili - I simply roasted it with olive oil, salt and pepper (along with a spaghetti squash I was using for another meal). Roast for about 45 minutes, or until fork tender. Mash the squash pieces until they are almost spreadable, and allow to cool.



Mince the garlic and fresh oregano, and saute in olive oil over medium-high heat for a few seconds.



Add the spinach - it will look like way too much, but will cook down drastically as long as you keep moving it around the pan.



After the water has cooked out (5 minutes or so), add a couple T of butter, season with grated nutmeg (1/2 tsp?), salt and pepper. Allow to cool.



Spoon the squash, spread the spinach, sprinkle the ricotta and then parmesan, leaving 2 inches at the top of the pasta sheet clear. Roll up like a jelly roll, then wrap in a cheesecloth and tie both ends. Boil gently in a large pot of salted water for 25 minutes.



Jamie's recipe also calls for clarifying 1/2 pound of butter (heating it till the whey separates, spooning off the whey, then using the rest so you can fry it without smoking or turning brown). I actually just used olive oil to fry the sage leaves, drained them on paper towels, then melted some butter to pour over the rotolo.



Remove from the water, cut the cheesecloth carefully away, and slice into 1-2 inch thick pieces. Drizzle a little butter, sprinkle with extra parmesan, and lay a couple of fried sage leaves over the top.

spaghetti squash with ricotta, sage & toasted pine nuts

I found this awesome recipe for spaghetti squash on The Kitchn (Apartment Therapy's cooking blog). It's so true - parmesan is good and all, but is that the *only* way to make spaghetti squash? This is definitely going in the rotation. I made it with a roast leg of lamb and some rainbow chard with garlic, the perfect autumnal dinner.

Grocery list: 2lb spaghetti squash, 2 cloves garlic, olive oil, 3/4 cup ricotta, handful of pinenuts (about half a cup), about 10 fresh sage leaves.



Start by cutting your squash in half lengthwise, and scoop out the seeds. Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper, and roast at 375 degrees for about an hour (obviously bigger squash take longer; you know it's done when a fork can pierce it easily). I also roasted some butternut squash while the oven was on - to be featured soon, promise :)



Heat a thin layer of olive oil in a small fry pan over medium-high heat. Fry the sage leaves for about a minute - they'll start to brown. When you remove them from the pan to a paper-lined plate, they actually get crispy. If you wait till they're crispy in the pan, they are actually burned on the plate (learned the hard way).



Smash a couple of garlic cloves, and mix in a large bowl with the ricotta. Toast the pinenuts over medium heat in a small fry pan, moving constantly so they don't burn in spots. Chop the crispy sage and stir it, along with the pine nuts, into the squash.



When the squash is done, hold each half down with tongs and, using your other hand, drag a fork across the inside of the squash. It will come up easily, looking like little spaghetti noodles. Transfer to the bowl with ricotta and stir well. Season with salt and pepper.

butternut squash ravioli with browned butter and sage

Well, it's official. I've decided to make a serious commitment to my love affair with italian cooking, and actually went out and purchased a pasta machine. It's not that hard really, to make fresh pasta. It's definitely very time-consuming, but not complicated. The little machine reminds me of the play-dough sets we had when I was a kid, you just rotate the handle and keep feeding the pasta through until it flattens out into smooth sheets. I tried to keep things simple, with just a basic roasted butternut squash filling and browned butter and sage as the sauce (from a recipe I found in F&W magazine). I can't tell if the pasta was really that good, or if it just tasted great to me since I was so proud of the effort. Now I just can't stop thinking about how *amazing* it is that you can buy fresh ravioli in whole foods for only $6...

Grocery list: all-purpose flour, 3 eggs, 1 pound butternut squash, sage, butter.



Start by roasting the butternut squash. Slice lengthwise, scoop out the seeds, and brush the cut side generously with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper, and roast for 45 minutes at 425 degrees. Remove and allow to cool.


To make the pasta dough, pulse 2 cups of flour in a food processor. Pour in the eggs 1 at a time, pulsing between each addition. Process for about 30 seconds until the dough starts to stick together. Add water 1 teaspoon at a time to get the right consistency (the "New Best Recipe" cookbook covers this very well, with illustrations that show you how to tell if the dough is too wet or too dry, depending on how it sticks to the sides of the mixing bowl). Remove the dough to a clean floured surface, and knead it till it's a solid disc. Let it sit out, covered with plastic wrap, for at least 15 minutes, so the dough will relax.



Cut the disc into 4 equal size pieces. Working one piece at a time, and keeping the others covered with plastic wrap, press out into a flat rectangle. Using the widest setting, feed the dough into the pasta machine, rolling it out so it's a longer and thinner rectangle. Exactly like you'd fold a piece of letter-size paper, fold the pasta in thirds. Feed it back into the machine and roll out into a long thin rectangle again, repeating the folding and rolling until you've done it 6 times total. Then, set the pasta machine on the next setting and roll the pasta through, and keep doing this until you've fed it through each setting in succession, until you're on the 2nd or 3rd thinnest setting (you don't want to roll it too thin or it will tear). Lay on a floured surface, and cut into 3 inch squares. Place on parchment or waxed paper. Continue until you've rolled out all the dough, and you have a stack of pasta squares layered between parchment paper.



To make the filling, scoop the room temperature squash out of its skin into a bowl. Add 1 T of plain bread crumbs and 3 T of parmesan, and season with salt and pepper. Stir until smooth.



Place a spoonful of filling onto one side of the square. Fold the dough in half, and using your finger dipped in cold water, run your finger along the edges -- this will make the dough stick together. Press the tines of a fork around the edges to crimp them and further secure the dough together.


Cook the pasta in gently boiling water for 5-6 minutes, until al dente. While they are cooking, melt 4-5 T of butter in a small saucepan, and keep swirling the butter until it starts to brown. Add 2 T of minced sage to the butter and cook for 2 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in salt and pepper, and toss with the pasta.