This all-in-one came together in my head just as well as it did in the pan! You're not going to get exact measurements from me because I eyeballed everything... Sorry!
Ingredients:
1 Butternut Squash, peeled and sliced
1 small loaf Pumpernickel, 1/2" cubes
1 white onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic
1 apple, chopped
2 c chicken stock
2 hot sausages, sliced
Directions:
1. Braise the sausages then set them aside and slice them.
2. Preheat oven to 375. Spread cubed squash onto a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Roast in the oven for 20 minutes or in the broiler on low, until they're soft.
3. Saute the onion in olive oil until it begins to caramelize. Then add the garlic and apple. Saute 2-3 more minutes.
4. Once the squash is done, remove it from the pan. Add the pumpernickel squares to the pan and toast them in the oven 10 minutes.
5. Add the squash and sausage to the saute pan and toss it with the rest of the veg.
6. Add the chicken stock to the bread into a baking dish. Stir them briefly but try not to agitate the bread too much. Add the sausage and veggie mix to the top of the pan. Bake (still at 375) for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and let stand covered for 10 minutes or so. Fold the mixture together and serve.
This is a beautiful, easy and healthy dish. Feel free to add other veggies to the mix, but I think the simplicity with just the squash is ideal. This will keep in the fridge for a day or two as well.
Butternut Squash Pasta
Ingredients
1 butternut squash, cubed into pieces approx 1-inch in size (I cheated and used pieces already cut up from the grocery)
1 box of whole wheat angel hair pasta
Olive oil
Nutmeg
Salt and pepper
Rubbed sage
Parmesan cheese
Steps
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place squash in a buttered or spray-coasted pyrex pan, lining the bottom of the pan. Drizzle a coating of olive oil over the squash. Sprinkle heavily with nutmeg. Cover with a pinch of salt and pepper.
2. Cook squash for 25-30 minutes or until soft and mushy.
3. When you have 3 minutes remaining, start boiling your water for the pasta.
4. Boil your pasta (should take about 5 minutes).
5. While your pasta is cooking, in a small sauce pan heat (low heat, just to warm and meld flavors) about 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil, one tablespoon of rubbed sage and two tablespoons of Parmesan cheese.
6. Drain pasta, toss with hot olive oil mixture.
7. Spoon squash into dish. Toss.
8. Heavily top with Parmesan cheese. Toss.
9. Yields a huge bowl of pasta, so eat with friends. Or a hearty appetite.
Enjoy! I served it with a spinach salad and a sauvignon blanc.
I've made butternut squash soup before, and it was SO yummy and refreshing! The smooth puree soup that I've posted before doesn't really serve as an all-in-one meal, though. This adaption has heartier ingredients and some texture to make it a big-bowl-of-soup kind of dinner.
A big hunk of the multigrain bread that I used for Reubens finished the dish perfectly!
Ingredients:
1 butternut squash, peeled and cubed
1 large potato, peeled and cubed
1 large sweet onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
5 c chicken stock (I use fat free, low sodium. You can also use 5 c of water w/ a couple of boullion cubes)
1 handful of fresh green beans
2 slices of ham, cut 1/2 inch thick (Casey's tip- get these from the deli rather than buying ham steaks)
3 T butter
1/2 c heavy cream
salt and pepper to taste
3 T freshly ground Parmesan cheese
1. Melt butter over medium heat. Add onions and saute on med-low heat until the onions are soft and almost clear. Then add the garlic and saute another minute.
2. Add the squash, potatoes and chicken stock. Let simmer 25 minutes, stirring occasionally until veggies are all very soft.
3. Take the ends off the green beans and chop or snap them into 1.5 inch pieces. Bring 1/2 c of water to boil in a small pan and add the green beans. Cover, let simmer 10-15 minutes (until the green beans are soft).
4. When the soup veggies are soft, remove half of the contents of the pot and blend them together in a food processor or blender.
Half of your mixture will look like this: Half will look like this:
5. Add the puree back into the pot with the un-blended veg. (Haha I'm going overboard on the photos now...)
6. Then add the cream, salt, pepper, ham and veggies. I threw in a few tablespoons of fresh grated parmesan for good measure. Stir it all together and let it simmer on the stove another 5-10 minutes before serving.
I thought we could try something new with the blog, just for fun and inspiration. Let's pick an ingredient and see if we can all make a recipe with it sometime this week... kind of like Iron Chef's "secret ingredient"??
Because I'm posting the idea- I'm picking the ingredient :oP Let's go with a fall inspiration item...
butternut squash!
I hope you all choose to accept this mission :) I'm looking forward to what y'all come up with!!
I think that dinner tonight may have been the highlight of my Goodies and Grub experience thus far. I'm so happy to have been blogging for a couple months because it's been opening so many doors (or cupboards) in the kitchen!
Both of these recipes come from The Smitten Kitchen; they were such a perfect compliment to one another. I'm calling the combination of bold tomatoes and onions with subtle, comforting summer squash soup "Summer Lovin'." What an essential summer garden supper!
I'll stop with the veggie love story and get on to the how-to's...
Veggie mania
Squash Soup Ingredients:
1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 lb yellow summer squash, halved and thinly sliced
2 carrots, thinly sliced
1 yellow-fleshed potato (1/2 pound), peeled, halved, and thinly sliced
4 cups chicken stock or reduced-sodium chicken broth
Directions:
1. Melt butter in a 6- to 8-quart wide heavy pot over moderate heat, then cook onion with salt, stirring, until softened, about 8 minutes.
2. Add squash, carrots, potato, and stock and bring to a boil.
3. Reduce heat, then simmer, partially covered, until vegetables are very tender, about 20 minutes.
4. Remove from heat and cool soup, uncovered, 10 minutes.
5. Working in batches, puree; soup in a blender until smooth (use caution when blending hot liquids) and transfer to a bowl.
6. Return purée to cleaned pot and thin with water if desired; simmer 3 minutes. Season with salt.
___________________________________________
Roasted Tomato and Cipollini Ingredients:
1 pound cipollini onions
1 pound small Roma or large cherry tomatoes1/4 cup olive oil
Coarse salt
4 slices of country or ciabatta bread, one-inch thick
Garlic clove (optional)
Few fresh basil leaves, slivered
1/2 c ricotta cheese/spinach mixture (optional)
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Boil a small pot of water and blanche the cipollini for 10 seconds, then plunge them into cold water. Use a paring knife to make a small slit in each, and slide them out of their skins and outer layer.
2. Spread peeled onions and tomatoes in a roasting pan. Drizzle with olive oil and a few good pinches of coarse salt. Toss everything together until well-coated and roast in preheated oven for about 45 minutes, reaching in every 15 minutes with a spatula to roll the tomatoes and onions around to ensure all sides get blistered.
Fuhgetaboutit!
3. Just before you take the tomatoes and onions out, place your bread slices on the oven rack and let them toast lightly. You can rub the toasts with a halved garlic clove while still hot.
4. Use tongs to arrange toasts in one layer on a serving platter.
5. I had some leftover spinach/ricotta mixture from stuffed chicken earlier in the week, so I spread some of that onto the toast. Then top the toast with tomato and onions, don't hesitate to pour some of the hard work of the tomato and onion onto the toast.
6. Sprinkle the dish with the basil and eat at once.
There's something about ravioli that I really really like. I must like it so much that I continue to eat ravioli without actually liking what's inside. I have honestly ever bitten into about 3 raviolis that had insides worth raving about. Let's face it, inside of a little carb-castle is the per-fect location for something awesome, so why bland meat and gritty cheese all the time? Ingredients:
Ravioli Dough:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 pinch salt
1 teaspoon olive oil
2 eggs
1 1/2 tablespoons water
Ravioli Filling:
1 roasted acorn squash (peeled and chopped)
4 cloves garlic
¼ of a large onion, finely chopped
2 T butter
1 pinch of salt
2 T freshly grated parmesan cheese
Pesto-Alfredo Cream Sauce:
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
3 tablespoons prepared basil pesto
sauce
2 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 (24 ounce) jar marinara sauce
Egg Wash:
1 egg
1 tablespoon water
I know it's a lot of ingredients and pieces and parts, but we'll get through this together... I had a lot of fun making the pasta and trying something new.
Directions:
1. Mound the flour and salt together on a work surface and form a well. Beat the teaspoon of olive oil, 2 eggs, and water in a bowl. Pour half the egg mixture into the well. Begin mixing the egg with the flour with one hand; use your other hand to keep the flour mound steady. Add the remaining egg mixture and knead to form a dough.
2. Knead the dough until smooth, 8 to 10 minutes; add more flour if the dough is too sticky. Form the dough into a ball and wrap tightly with plastic. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
3. While the dough is resting, prepare the ravioli filling. Saute onion and garlic in butter on medium heat for 7 minutes (until the onions turn clear. If the edges start to caramelize before the onions turn white, turn the heat down.) Combine sauté mixture with squash and mix until the squash is mashed.
4. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the crushed garlic and pesto sauce and cook for one minute. Pour in the heavy cream, raise the heat to high, and bring the sauce to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the Parmesan cheese and stir until the cheese melts. Remove the pan from the heat and keep warm.
5. At the same time, heat the marinara sauce in another sauce pan on low.
6. Beat the egg with a tablespoon of water to make an egg wash. Roll out the pasta dough into thin sheets no thicker than a nickel. To assemble the ravioli, brush the egg wash over a sheet of pasta. Drop the filling mixture on the dough by teaspoonfuls about one inch apart. Cover the filling with the top sheet of pasta, pressing out the air from around each portion of filling. Press firmly around the filling to seal. Cut into individual ravioli with a knife or pizza cutter. Seal the edges.
7. Fill a large pot with lightly salted water and bring to a rolling boil over high heat. Stir in the ravioli, and return to a boil. Cook uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the ravioli float to the top and the filling is hot, 4 to 8 minutes. Drain well.
8. Grease a baking sheet. Place the cooked ravioli on the sheet pan and bake in the preheated oven until brown, about 4 minutes.
1. Braise the sausages then set them aside and slice them.
6. Add the chicken stock to the bread into a baking dish. Stir them briefly but try not to agitate the bread too much. Add the sausage and veggie mix to the top of the pan. Bake (still at 375) for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and let stand covered for 10 minutes or so. Fold the mixture together and serve.
