Butternut Squash Tart

A great new recipe I discovered around Thanksgiving offers another use for butternut squash besides the typical soup route.  A crowd favorite, this is a nice hearty appetizers that toes the line between sweet and savory.

Ingredients: frozen puff pastry sheet, butternut squash (preferably whole/fresh and sliced to your desired thinness), 1 egg + water, salt, olive oil, fresh sage leaves, honey or maple syrup, parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven 375 and begin by placing the puff pastry sheet on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.  Beat the egg and a tsp of water to make an egg wash and brush it over the puff pastry.  Arranged your butternut squash slices evenly over the pastry, overlapping as you see fit.

Cover the squash covered pastry with more parchment paper and another cookie sheet of something with a little weight to press down on the squash before putting it into the oven.  As it bakes, the moisture in the squash won't evaporate leaving it dry, but allow for steam cooking.  Bake for about 10-15 minutes.  When you notice some puffing of the pastry, but not browning on top, you're good.

Remove the top layer of parchment paper and cookie sheet, brush or drizzle with olive oil and return the squash pastry to the oven.  Bake for an addition half an hour or so, uncovered, until the squash looks cooked to your doneness (you can poke it with a toothpick or fork to make sure it is soft enough), and the pastry is a light golden brown, but not a burnt mess.

The suggested toppings for the tart are a chili-infused honey, fried sage leaves, and freshly shaved parmesan cheese.  When I made this, we did not have honey and one of our diners was not a fan of spicy things, so for the drizzle, we went with maple syrup instead.  I wanted the syrup to be thicker though, so in a saute pan I heated a few tablespoons of syrup with about half as much water, cooked to a boil, then simmered while it reduced and thickened.  For the fried sage, heat the olive oil in a shallow skillet over medium-high heat and add the fresh sage, one leaf at a time.  It will bubble/pop because of the moisture in the leaves, and it will fry quickly so remove the leaves with tongs after about 5-10 seconds on each side in the oil.

Top the tart with the honey or syrup drizzle, the fried sage, and the cheese (preferably freshly shaved parmesan, but we only had pre-grated).  Slice into individual squares and serve!

Three Cheese Mac and Cheese

I discovered this recipe in food and wine magazine a few months ago and made a mental note that I needed to try it.  Well, this week I finally bought the ingredients, and several pots/pans/messy stoves later we had more three cheese mac than we knew what to do with.  aka an entire casserole dish of this stuff is currently sitting in the fridge at work.

The best part about this dish is the sauce.  It seems like a lot of sauce when you first make it, but it reduces when you bake the pasta.  Basically you cook some chopped garlic and onions in 3 cups of cream or half and half (we did 2 cups cream 1 cup milk).  Take some cream out to mix with flour then add the mixture back to thicken the suace.  Next comes the cheese.  Goat, white cheddar, and parmesan.  Sour cream, herbs, salt and pepper to season.  Then remove some of the sauce and mix with egg yolks and return that to the pan.  Then take some of your cooked pasta and sample it in the sauce if you can't wait for it to bake (that wasn't in the recipe).  45 minutes in the oven later and you've got dinner.

Well, I loved this sauce so much when it was on the stove that I was kind of sad to see it reduced so much in the oven, so next time I think i'll only bake the pasta for about 10 minutes, rather than 45, so the parmesan cheese on top can melt, but I don't lose the cheesy goodness coating the noodles.  I scanned the original recipe for all y'alls if you want to try it for yourselves.  Cooking the amount listed fills up a good 2 casserole dishes.  I'm thinking this will make an appearance at my next dinner party.