Best Fancy Squash Recipe

When my husband and I moved into the first house we ever lived in together, in northern Vermont, we were greeted by giant, misshapen blue Hubbard squashes congregating in a pile on the floor of the wide front porch. I felt rich, like we had inherited money, or discovered hidden treasure. But the owners of the house (we were renting) returned one day and hauled off most of the squashes. They did leave us a few and after hacking into one, I discovered how delicious was the sweet, dry taste of it. I love all the winter squashes--butternut, buttercup (my favorite), Hubbard, acorn, sweet dumpling, delicata, autumncup, ambercup, etc. Here's a great website that lists and describes all the squashes and how to cook them:
http://whatscookingamerica.net/squash.htm

But if you want to impress your friends and family, or just have a little extra time to prepare the vegetable for one of your meals, try this recipe adapted from Mario Batali's cookbook, Holiday Food. It's called Scapece di Zucca or Marinated Butternut Squash. The beauty of this dish is that you don't have to peel the squash (the skin becomes soft enough to eat although most won't want to eat it--but I do), you can serve this at room temperature, and the recipe makes a lot. Try it with any firm, dry-fleshed "winter" squash. Everyone will want the recipe.

Scapece di Zucca
serves 8-10

2 medium butternut squash or the equivalent amount of another winter squash,seeded and cut crosswise into 1" slices.

Salt and Pepper

1/2 cup evoo

1/4 cup the best red wine vinegar

1/2 medium red onion, sliced paper thin

1/2 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1 garlic clove, sliced paper-thin

1/4 cup fresh mint leaves

450 degrees oven

Roast the squash pieces: drizzle with 1/4 cup evoo, salt and pepper, and arrange in single layer on a cookie sheet. Roast until just tender, 18-20 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl stir together the remaining 1/4 cup evoo, vinegar, onion, pepper flakes, oregano, and garlic and season with s & p.

When the squash is cooked, immediately transfer to a dish or a nice shallow bowl and pour the marinade over it. Allow squash to cool in the marinade for at least 20 minutes. You can make it up to 6 hours ahead but don't refrigerate (mine sat in the marinate for several hours). Sprinkle with the mint leaves just before serving at room temperature.

Enjoy! And Happy New Year!

Saving Christmas Dinner

Well, the pork was dry. Was it the fault of the recipe? My new oven? The roasting pan I used? Me? Secretly I blame the recipe. How could browning, then cooking for 1 hour slices of pork loin be any good? Why did I believe it? The chocolate/red wine sauce was good but no amount of liquid in the pan could keep that pork moist after an hour of cooking. So, Nancy Harmon Jenkins, you've lost my trust as an expert on Italian cooking and Italian culture no matter how many cookbooks you've published! I'll not be giving out your Maiale Cotto in Vino Rosso con Cioccolato recipe, no matter how intriguing it sounds.

On the other hand, my Christmas Dinner sides were good. So I'm happy to share the recipes with you. There were three: a simple Polenta from Marcella Hazan (she's never wrong); a Broccoli Pecorino Gratinata from a recent Bon Appetit but originally from Michael Chiarello (who cooks just the way I like to cook--and eat); and the best, Scapece Di Zucca (Marinated Butternut Squash) from Mario Batali Holiday Food cookbook. The three sides work well together and if there's a vegetarian in your midst, he or she won't feel like something is missing from the meal. First, here's the polenta recipe:

Basic Polenta
If, like me, you love the homey, satisfying goodness of corn you'll love polenta. It's my new favorite side dish. As long as you get the proportions right and have patience with the simple preparation, it will be delicious. If you can find coarse-grain corn meal (like the type from the Wayside Inn Grist Mill which I wrote about in this blog on Oct. 17, 2009, Art Imitating Life?), the final result will be a bit more flavorful and chewy; but the finely-milled stuff (almost like corn flour, but not quite that powdery) you can get everywhere will do nicely also.

Ingredients
1 tablespoon salt
2 cups cornmeal, coarse-grained or regular

1) Bring 6 & 1/2 cups water to a boil in a large pot.
2) Add the salt, turn the heat down to medium low so that the water is just shimmering, and add the cornmeal in a very thin stream, stirring with a long-handled wooden spoon. Never stop stirring and keep the water at a slow, steady simmer.
3) Continue stirring for about 20 minutes after all the cornmeal has been added. Add grated cheese if you like (or herbs, etc.). The polenta is done when it tears away from the sides of the pot as you stir. You can taste it and see if it tastes cooked or still like raw cornmeal.
4) At this point, I usually serve it, straight from the pot onto plates as a side dish, or under the main meat/fish/vegetable course. The polenta mixes well with a lot of sauces and gravies and cooking juices. If you mean to serve the polenta fried, or cold or in a different presentation, pour out the hot polenta onto a board or plate and let it cool in the shape you prefer. You can then cut it up into various shapes for further preparations.

The recipes for marinated butternut squash and broccoli gratinata will be next--stay tuned...

Happy 2010!

How Did She Do It?

My Mom, pictured here at 81, raised seven kids. Every Sunday she made a real Sunday dinner and we would sit down, all together, at the table. It was usually a multi-course meal, starting with pasta and ending with fruit, nuts, cookies. As we got a little older, we began helping her with the clean-up, but for many years she was it. I remember the mountain of dishes that sat on the counter waiting to be washed after each one of these feasts; the pans piled-up in the sink; the table, ransacked and abandoned, that needed clearing; the crumbed and spattered floor that needed sweeping. Dad never let her clean-up too soon—he liked to linger, bring out the Liquore di Sambuca, pour another glass of wine. This was a time before dishwashers were standard in every kitchen (certainly not in ours); when businesses were closed on Sunday (people visited, or read the paper, or drank); and before husbands were equal partners in the household. Our table was elastic—Dad made room for 4, 5, even 6 more chairs, and often there would be an aunt and an uncle and a few cousins in those seats, always family, always a fun time for the kids. And much later, when we had boyfriends, we couldn't wait to bring them home and have them join in at the table. Even then there was a shimmer of awareness that this was something special—after all, none of our friends lived this way. Maybe because we were Italians in a wasp-y town; maybe because Mom didn’t work, outside the home--it was where we all wanted to be, the family dinner table, every Sunday. How did she do it?

That was the 50’s. Fast forward to 2009 and I am planning Christmas Dinner for 9, and having a hard time generating enough energy to jump in. But considering all the limitations I have to work with (1 guest loves meat, 1 is a vegetarian), I’ve come up with a menu I hope will work and be fun to cook. Of course it’s Italian and the main course is from an Italian cookbook I haven’t ever even opened since purchasing it about two years ago. But I trust this cookbook author, Nancy Harmon Jenkins. Jenkins is an accomplished foodie, a prolific cook book author, food writer and has been called "an anthropologist of the human soul as revealed through food." She has written extensively about Mediterranean cuisine and lives on the coast of Maine and in Tuscany (doesn’t that sound just perfect?).
Rather than starting the festivities with Prosecco, which I usually serve as folks arrive, I’m making one of Mario Batali’s suggestions for Christmas sparkle, Acqua d’Ananas, which is a Pineapple and Sweet White Vermouth cocktail. Sounds interesting, doesn’t it? As a collector of cookbooks, I’ve been wanting to try something from Batali’s 2000 Holiday Food cookbook and this cocktail may be just right--even my Mom may like it. Here’s the recipe in case you want to have it for your own Christmas celebration.



Serves 12
1 whole pineapple (2 lbs., peeled, cored, and cut into 2-inch chunks)
1 fifth sweet white vermouth
1 bunch tarragon leaves

Chill martini glasses in the freezer until very cold. Place the pineapple in a blender with half of the vermouth. Blend until smooth and pour over ice into the martini glasses, garnish with sprigs of tarragon, top each glass with a splash of the remaining vermouth, and serve.

Our main course will be a recipe from Jenkins book, Cucina Del Sole, a Celebration of Southern Italian Cooking, 2007. The recipe is called Maiale Cotto in Vino Rosso con Cioccolate (Pork Braised in Red Wine with Chocolate).

I’ll publish the recipe after I see how it turns out!

High Prices = Good Food?

I had dinner last Saturday night with old friends at Craigie on Main. The food and service was all top quality as one would expect at a high-end restaurant with an award-winning chef (Tony Maws). But the experience left me wondering if it’s possible any more to get good, well-prepared restaurant food without that uncomfortable feeling that maybe you spent too much. The bill came to almost $400. And that’s with only 1 shared dessert, 3 glasses of wine, 2 beers, 4 entrees, and 4 appetizers. I know that’s about average for today’s fine-dining establishments, but it gets tiring and pushes these restaurants into the “for-special-events-only” category. I should post this question on Chowhound and I’m sure I’d get a bunch of responses—everyone has their favorite economy restaurant. But if you have an opinion, I’d love to hear it here, too.

On the other hand, I finally made it to Mt. Auburn St. in Watertown for a visit to Fastachi, the place that roasts its own nuts. They also make lots of confections with fruit and chocolate, a favorite combination of mine, and chocolate candies. It’s the kind of place that if it were next door, you’d be in there all the time.

And down the street in Belmont, is the amazing Sofra. It looks and feels a lot like Flour on Washington St. in Boston. Sofra makes and sells similar items but so many of the baked goods here have a little bit of a different taste that I find really satisfying. Flavors like cardamom or anise or other Middle Eastern twists on standard bakery items permeate their menu. I had a donut that was as light and airy as Yorkshire Pudding—delicious! Problem with Sofra is that there’s never any place to sit down!