Darren’s Culinary Discoveries: Butternut Squash
So recently I have been watching the series Chef’s Table on Netflix. It started with watching Chris Bianco’s episode about “the best pizza in the world” and how he sources his ingredients from local Arizona farms. I have been on a culinary dive since then. Watching Chef’s Table and seeing how each chef (Michelin star or not) strives to achieve his or her own version of perfection is so inspiring to see. It is currently pushing me to do the same. I have always thought about culinary school but that has always been a “future Darren” endeavor when close to not practicing as a physician assistant anymore.
My cooking style has always been a wide range of things but my “staple” and what I’m most able to most personalize is, well, Pasta. I always argue that it’s not worth going to a fancy restaurant to order pasta because it’s something so easily made. Maybe it’s because I make it all the time. But I think in order to broaden my style, it’s essential to use things that are not quite “common”.
My sister gave me a Butternut squash after this year’s Friendsgiving because she wasn’t going to use it. I was thinking I would make a Butter squash soup because that’s the only thing I knew people did with it. Or bake it on a cooking tray in cubes. I didn’t think much about this Butternut squash until one day I saw it on the side of my stove, oozing clear liquid from one of the holes that had formed. I thought I might as well bake it now so it doesn’t go to waste. I cut off that rotten part (that hadn’t really spread), peeled it, cut it into halves and started baking it. I decided to look up what recipes used Butternut squash besides the typical ones I knew about. That’s when I found the idea of Butternut squash ravioli. I already knew how to make Ravioli filled with Ricotta (Thanks Lauren) and thought this would be an interesting deviation. I didn’t realize how “mashable” and soft baked Butternut squash would be. I didn’t need a food proccessor or blender for this. Anyways, I ended up making it and the filling was DELICIOUS. Who would have thought the combination of certain ingredients made Butternut squash taste like a nutty Ricotta cheese, with the same creamy consistency!
Butternut Squash Ravioli
1 cup 00 flour, 1/2 cup Semolina flour, 3 whole eggs, and splashes of water (2 eggs made it too dry)
Knead the dough with rigor and love, wrap it in saran, and let it rest in the fridge for at least 4 hours
Bake the Butternut, mash it with a fork, add nutmeg, a pinch of cayenne pepper, finely diced sage, some salt, some black pepper, and add heavy cream and mix it, add other stuff to taste
Form the dough into sheets for the ravioli (using the two-fold or three-fold method) and eat now or freeze.
I sautéed this ravioli with garlic, butter, sage, chili flakes, some white wine, and heavy cream. It worked.
Thoughts: Who knew sage and butternut squash would go so well together. For this first recipe I didn’t have sage and didn’t want to go out and buy it so I used dried thyme, which worked really well. Earthy herbs like marjoram, thyme, rosemary, sage will likely work. Sage is a very strong tasting herb with some bitterness.
So now my mind is like, let’s see how I can use this Butternut in different ways like how the competition series on Netflix, Final Table, has a last round where the visiting chef picks an ingredient and they have to come up with a dish that really exemplifies the ingredient.
Next, I made a Butternut Squash Gnocchi:
Some type of ***nut Squash (butternut, honeynut, what else is there?), Russet Potato, 2 cups 00 flour (haven’t tried semolina because I thought it would be too starchy with the potato), NO EGG (it’s already so mushy)
Bake the Butternut squash the same way (it’s interesting because this time I went to Whole Foods and they only had Honeynut squash). Puree this with a fork. Get a Russet Potato and leave the skin on and boil it until tender and you think it’s mashable (poke it with a fork while it’s boiling to get a sense). After, mash these two things together. Incorporate 2 cups of flour slowly until you think you can handle kneading the dough with your hands without it becoming a huge mess. Let it rest for at least 4 hours. Roll the Gnocchi after into 1/2 inch wide rolls. And cut into 3/4 in length and flour on a parchment and place it in the freezer. Throwing it into a bag now and then the freezer will cause them to stick together and clump up when you want to cook them.
I made my first “Tasting menu” last night and shared it with my girlfriend and best friend. I used the Butternut Squash Gnocchi with a garlic butter sauce and topped it with Seared Scallops. Scallops and butternut work.
Butternut Squash Cream Pasta with Bison Ragout
My Ragout sauces are pretty meat heavy. I don’t like adding celery or carrots because I don’t like the color. I’ve been using a lot of shallot and sage recently. Ground bison seemed like an interesting one in Whole Foods: I wanted something slightly “gamey” that was similar to beef. I sautéed all this stuff and then I added some butternut squash puree to the sauce and then added my homemade Pappardelle Pasta. Then cream and spices, salt, black pepper, shaved parm cheese. What a great combination and what a creamy sauce that didn’t need tomato sauce. If you’re not craving acidity, butternut squash cream Pasta is a good go-to. Next time for this recipe I’ll be adding more butternut (I used a little from left overs). Would have wanted more of its taste.
D
