Dish of the Week: Butternut squash

This week Gourmet’s Ruth Reichl called butternut squash fall’s finest vegetable. “Its sweet flavor and silky texture make butternut squash a star in many of our favorite fall recipes,” she wrote. The only problem is that most of the time, it seems to find its way into overly sweet soup. Luckily our intrepid DCist food staff came through with some of their other favorite uses for butternut squash.

Alyse Kraus grabbed the ready-made pizza dough from Vace and topped it with butternut squash, broccoli rabe, and the store’s smoked mozzarella. Rebecca Cooper tried some of Assistant Arts Editor Missy Frederick’s butternut squash and hazelnut lasagna, which sounds both healthy and indulgent at the same time.

For those of you on the CSA circuit like Andrew Chriss, another option is penne with acorn squash and pancetta, substituting acorn squash with butternut and pancetta with bacon. He says, “The best part is that we had leftover squash “mush” that we used to filled wonton wrappers to make semi-ravioli (which were delicious with some butter and sage).”

For those who don’t want to do the work in the kitchen, you can grab butternut squash and couscous salad, with spinach, olives and grilled chicken at Nando’s in Chinatown for a slightly Mediterranean take.

Photo by EvinDC