Winter squash | Gourmandistan

Putting dates, walnuts and caramel with pumpkin welcomes fall into our home

November 9, 2018 by Steve

Fall seemed unwilling to visit our Kentucky hollow for many months, but finally gave us a few vibrantly colored leaves to photograph. We took advantage of some sunny, mild days to plant daffodils in the field by our new bridge, hoping we’ll see some new color in springtime. We’re of course anticipating what we’ll do with squash, apples and other harvest items. But we thought we’d bring in the season with an attempt to recreate pumpkin loaf in a […]

Categories: Baking, Cake, Desserts & Sweets, Food, Nuts, Recipes, Winter squash

Savory sausage tray bakes start to take over Gourmandistan

September 16, 2018 by Steve

We’re always looking for tasty but not-too-taxing ideas for busy weekday dinners. Pizza is often an option, but recently we’ve found another use for the “pizza pans” we inherited from Steve’s Italian-American family. Especially since winter squash and apple season arrived, we’ve become quite enamored of savory tray bakes. Various starchy things and apples have been placed on a tray with excellent sausages from our local butcher, arriving at our table shortly thereafter with little mess to clean up. We […]

Categories: Apples, Cooking, Food, Recipes, Sausage, Winter squash

Butternut squash, mushroom and country ham cannelloni lighten the load

October 19, 2014 by Michelle

We’re still working our way through our winter squash collection. After the recent pumpkin lasagne and a batch of Paula Wolfert’s squash soup (always delicious), we were still looking at a lot of squash. Michelle suggested making some squash pasta sauce, but Steve thought that would be too close to pouring soup over spaghetti. Instead (partly because he’s been on quite a pasta roll) he suggested making cannelloni, and Michelle quickly agreed. In the pantheon of pasta shapes invented by Italians, cannelloni (“little reeds”) […]

Categories: Cooking, Food, Pasta, Pork, Recipes, Winter squash

Harvest lasagne with pumpkin, kale and pork

October 7, 2014 by Michelle

Last week we were told by our CSA farmer, Pavel, that the enormous orange and green gourd he handed us was known as a Musque de Provence pumpkin. Maybe some of our francophone friends will tell us whether it should be called musque or musquée. The English language sites seem to be just about equally split, though the French sites do lean toward the side of musquée. It’s apparently also known as the “Fairytale Pumpkin,” for obvious reasons. We can’t say exactly where it sits on the pumpkin family […]

Categories: Cheese, Cooking, Food, Kale, Pasta, Pork, Winter squash

Curried winter squash soup: If it’s farm share, it’s still summer, right?

November 18, 2011 by Steve

We are grimly staring down the onset of winter, scheming how to maximize the local and sustainable parts of our upcoming Thanksgiving dinner and dreading that time of year when we’re forced back into the produce section of Whole Foods. Defying the early darkness and bitter chill of these mid-November evenings, Michelle still gathers what herbs remain in our garden after several killing frosts. Our carrots have dwindled to a few gnarled roots, and we’re no longer sure which of […]

Categories: Cooking, Food, Recipes, Soups & Stews, Vegetarian, Winter squash

We just can’t quitaly: butternut squash & mushroom ravioli en brodo

November 13, 2011 by Michelle

Yeah, we wrote earlier about avoiding Italian. But Steve never meant for ravioli to be included in that resolution. He still looks for just about any excuse to make pasta, especially now he knows 00 flour is available locally in 5-kilo bags. And while we still have a pile of butternut and other winter squash on our counter, this batch actually came about as we prepared to greet our new upright freezer. (Hail, god of chilly overabundance! Thank you for […]

Categories: Cooking, Food, Italy, Mushrooms, Pasta, Recipes, Vegetarian, Winter squash

Struggle, strive, squash.

October 19, 2011 by Steve

Winter squash is work. Peeling is a chore and cutting can be terrifying, as the heavy flesh resists even the sharpest knives. And many times our local squash can be a little disappointing, our butternuts and acorns lacking a certain sugariness that we’ve found in French potimarron and Italian zucca. Michelle spends much time at local markets searching for something that appears close to these champions of cucurbitae. And when she finds a suitable candidate she faces even more work, […]

Categories: Cooking, Food, France, Old cookbooks, Recipes, Vegetarian, Winter squash

Couscous and Coincidence

December 5, 2010 by Michelle

Yotam Ottolenghi came into Gourmandistani consciousness from two different directions. Michelle, constant comber of media and things food-related, had seen his weekly “The New Vegetarian” pieces in The Guardian and mentioned them to Steve. Steve, adrift in a sea of RSS feeds, forgot the mention—yet somehow coincidentally stumbled across Ottolenghi’s website, mentioning his food to Michelle. Michelle, after graciously reminding Steve that she already knew of the Israeli/Italian/German chef and his stylish London restaurant and take-outs, agreed we should explore […]

Categories: Cooking, Food, Pasta, Recipes, Spinach, Vegetarian, Winter squash

France, meet farm share

November 12, 2010 by Michelle

On our recent trip to Gascony we once again enjoyed the sight of plump orange potiron squash at local markets. We’ve watched vendors slice wedges from these squat, pumpkin-esque gourds, but never bought even a piece—although we would often joke about what we’d do if we ended up with a whole one for ourselves. Now, thanks to our friends at Foxhollow Farm, we know (sort of). The drought-stricken year seems to have barely slowed Foxhollow’s production of squashes, and as […]

Categories: Cooking, Food, France, Recipes, Soups & Stews, Winter squash