I have to be honest, I’m not a huge fan of squash. I’ll grow zucchini and summer squash and eat them all summer, but don’t necessarily love them.
At the grocery store, I pass the pile of winter squashes and look, but they just confuse me.
What would I do with it? Does it need to be peeled? Which one is which? I have on occasion brought one or two home and they sat in the kitchen, making me feel guilty until they became rotten and I’d throw it away. My friends all seem to have great recipes for soups and salads, or just roasting and eating. Not me. I realize it’s bordering on irrational.
Two things have conspired to get me to finally cook spaghetti squash. My husband had a side of spaghetti squash at a restaurant, loved it and suggested I try to cook some at home. Then my mom grew some in her backyard garden this past summer. I was really impressed with how great her harvest was and she gave me a couple when I was up visiting in October.
Mom also told me that she had read that as long as part of then stem is attached, it won’t go bad. So when she harvested her squash, she left a couple of inches attached. She also cured them for 10 days in the heat of her sun porch. I think she did a good job hardening them off, since they held up really well without any special storage.
This was the first time she had ever grown any kind of fall squash so were both going to experiment with them. I was challenged. I wasn’t going to let these two beautiful squashes go to waste so I needed to figure something out.
After a very interesting internet search, I found that many recipes were very heavy on cheese, so trying to stick to a low-sodium diet necessitated some creativity. I finally settled on just a simple roasting, and then sautéing with butter, garlic and parsley for the first time.
There seemed to be no consensus on how to roast the squash so here’s what I did.
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Slice the squash in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds.
Place the halves cut side down on a roasting pan and roast until softened, about 45 min. It’s done when you can easily pierce the skin.
Remove from the oven. Using a fork, scrape the fleshy spaghetti strands from the peel.
You can serve as is, it has a wonderful mellow flavor all on it’s own. I sautéed it briefly in some butter, garlic and parsley. There are so many things you can do with spaghetti squash. You just need to be willing to try new things 🙂
What’s your favorite winter squash?
Favorite squash? Butternut. I make a delicious butternut squash soup. So easy. And this week I tried a butternut squash gratin that I found it on the Epicurious site, called “Butternut Squash Gratin with Rosemary Breadcrumbs.” Easy and it goes a long way.
I’d love to try your soup recipe. I’m thinking of trying to grow Butternut squash this year.
My favorite squash is acorn. However, I like all winter squashes baked with butter and a dash of brown sugar and maybe cinnamon. Some people actually put spaghetti sauce on spaghetti squash, which is incredibly weird.