Butternut squash, two ways

Before this year, I was never really the biggest squash fan. Then the CSA happened, and I got two butternut squash, which is more than I've ever purchased in one year before. I had to do something with them, and I decided to follow a rather interesting suggestion from my CSA newsletter: butternut squash gnocchi.

It's like regular potato gnocchi, except squash instead of potato as the starch. So, first you must halve, core, and roast the butternut squash.

After you roast it, it is nice and soft, and then you scoop out all the flesh. The little pile of crud at the lower right of the above photo is the leftover skin of two other squash halves, so you can see that the skin is actually quite thin.

After that, you mash the squash with a potato masher and start mixing in eggs, white flour, and whole wheat flour. The mixture should be relatively smooth, but a few little chunks of squash are fine.

The instructions for mixing flour are a little spotty, as the recipe states that you should mix in "2-4 cups of flour," which is a larger margin of error than most bread recipes I make. Also, it says to keep mixing in "a little bit of white flour and a little bit of whole wheat flour until you have something like a slightly sticky dough." WTF? I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.

To make the gnocchi, you take chunks of dough and roll them out into strands of dough, then cut 1-inch chunks for the gnocchi. I had to use a lot of flour to accomplish this, but it turned out OK. You boil the gnocchi until they rise to the surface of the water, just like regular gnocchi, and then lay them out to dry.

I used some right away for dinner, gave some to friends, and froze the rest. I served them by sprinkling a little ground nutmeg, cayenne pepper, shredded Parmigiano Reggiano, and olive oil, with a salad on the side.

They were very good! They are clearly orange, though not as orange as I expected, and their flavor is subtle. I imagine these will be very good into the winter!

As a finale, I roasted the seeds with a little cumin. Mmm.

They were even better than pumpkin seeds, I think, or maybe it's just that I haven't yet had any homemade pumpkin seeds this fall. But they tasted very warm and flavorful.

I feel like I did these squash proud.