Last week, my two childhood friends and I were in Chicago for my holiday cookbook signing. We arrived in the city around lunchtime, and since our hotel rooms weren’t ready yet and I therefore couldn’t immediately check in, change into my yoga pants, crawl under the covers, begin sucking my thumb, and turn on the TV to see if this was one of the blessed hotels in America that carries Bravo, we decided to go have lunch.
After asking around here and there, we landed at The Purple Pig. And I know I’m probably a little slanted because I get excited about dining out, period, and pretty much think everything someone else cooks for me is the best thing I’ve ever eaten…but honestly, this was one of the best meals I’ve ever had. I loved it. Absolutely loved it. The whole menu is a compilation of small, shareable dishes and plates, and my two friends and I split probably a total of five hundred thousand things. At least it felt like that many. But we just couldn’t choose!
It was a feast for the senses. We shared everything from roasted beets with goat cheese to fried eggplant balls, but our overwhelming favorite was a little dish of roasted butternut squash with pumpkin seeds and Parmesan. It was so simple, but the textures and flavors were just perfect…and yesterday, because my sister was visiting, I set out to recreate it.
I needed it to be in my life again.
Start with a butternut squash. This is on the small side, which is great if you’re just making this for yourself, but you can go as big as your heart tells you to go.
Lop off the top and bottom…
Use a nice, sharp knife to slice off the skin…
Then slice the whole darn squarsh in half and scoop out the seeds.
I wanted to cut the squash into a nice, neat dice, so I cut the halves into large pieces, cut the pieces into slices, cut the slices into matchsticks…
And cut the matchsticks into a dice.
Then I kept on going, chatting with my sister about matters of global relevance and Real Housewives (those are two entirely separate things), until most of the squash was diced. I left out the little areas that held the seeds because they don’t dice as neatly, but I used as much as I could.
Meanwhile, I melted some butter. It seemed like the right thing to do.
Then I carefully skimmed the solids off the top…
Until they were mostly gone.
The squarsh goes into a bowl, by garsh!
Then I drizzled in a little bit of the butter. Didn’t need much! I just wanted to add enough to moisten the squash and make sure it sizzled in the oven.
Next came salt and pepper…and if I’d been smart, I would have added a touch of chili powder.
Next time!
Tossed it all together, poured it onto a baking sheet…
Spread them out into an even layer, then popped ’em into the oven. I did 375 for the first 20-25 minutes until they were starting to sizzle and soften, then I cranked up the heat to 400 to finish them off and make sure they got nice and brown on the edges.
Would you like to see?
Are you sure?
Can you HANDLE the squarsh?
(Goodness, ‘squarsh’ is fun to say out loud.)
Okay…here it is.
Lovely!
And…lovely. This is exactly what the squash looked like at The Purple Pig: almost oven-fried in texture, with nice color all around the edges.
Next up, I grated some Parmesan…
And sprinkled it all over the squash while it was still on the pan. (A few minutes elapsed between my pulling the squash out of the oven and sprinkling on the Parmesan, so the pan wasn’t at its hottest.) I tossed it around immediately…
Then I transferred it all to a plate before the cheese began to melt.
Next, I grabbed these! Now, The Purple Pig uses pumpkin seeds, but I didn’t have any. So I thought pine nuts would be the next best thing.
I toasted the pine nuts in a skillet over medium heat until they were nice and flavorful…
Then I added them to the plate and tossed them with the squash.
And…here it is! This is how The Purple Pig serves a lot of their dishes—in little ramekins and bowls—and I wanted to be just like them.
But here’s another way you can serve it: Salad greens tossed in a simple balsamic vinaigrette…
And the squash poured all over the top.
It was nothing short of divine. Just divine.
I wished I’d made twice the amount of squash. I could have kept going. Total loveliness. If you like butternut squash, you will love this. If you don’t like butternut squash…well, you will love this.
