Kabocha Squash with Sunchokes, Mushrooms & Cheese
This is the second vegetarian entree option for your Thanksgiving meal or any other time. Last week I posted a Roasted Acorn Squash recipe. Take your pick or serve both and let your guests choose. They are terrific. An obvious but unappreciated upside to stuffing and baking squashes is as the ingredients cook gently inside, they infuse their flavors into the gourds flesh, and the dish becomes more than the sum of its parts. Kabocha squash are available year round. The flavor and texture of the Japanese pumpkin is likened to that of a sweet potato crossed with a pumpkin and sweeter than butternut squash. You can easily recognize a kabocha by its dark green color with some celadon colored strips and a dull surface. Similar in shape to a pumpkin, it is a bit more squat, has a very short grey stem and is denser than a pumpkin because of its smaller cavity. The firm flesh inside is an intense yellow-orange color. Sunchokes, also called Jerusalem artichokes, are an edible knobby looking tuber, which look a lot, like ginger root. They grow underground, much like a potato. You do not need to peel them; the skin is edible. Simply scrub them clean under cold running water with a stiff brush. They taste slightly nutty, and savory like a cross between an artichoke heart and the best potato youve ever had. If you have not tasted Tallegio cheese, you are in for a treat. It is a semi-soft Italian cheese that has a strong aroma but its flavor is comparatively mild with a buttery, fruity taste. The texture is moist to oozy. Spread any leftovers on bread and enjoy. If you have to substitute, I would recommend a strong Limburger, Fontina or Gruyere.
This is the second vegetarian entree option for your Thanksgiving meal or any other time. Last week I posted a Roasted Acorn Squash recipe. Take your pick or serve both and let your guests choose. They are terrific. An obvious but unappreciated upside to stuffing and baking squashes is as the ingredients cook gently inside, they infuse their flavors into the gourds flesh, and the dish becomes more than the sum of its parts. Kabocha squash are available year round. The flavor and texture of the Japanese pumpkin is likened to that of a sweet potato crossed with a pumpkin and sweeter than butternut squash. You can easily recognize a kabocha by its dark green color with some celadon colored strips and a dull surface. Similar in shape to a pumpkin, it is a bit more squat, has a very short grey stem and is denser than a pumpkin because of its smaller cavity. The firm flesh inside is an intense yellow-orange color. Sunchokes, also called Jerusalem artichokes, are an edible knobby looking tuber, which look a lot, like ginger root. They grow underground, much like a potato. You do not need to peel them; the skin is edible. Simply scrub them clean under cold running water with a stiff brush. They taste slightly nutty, and savory like a cross between an artichoke heart and the best potato youve ever had. If you have not tasted Tallegio cheese, you are in for a treat. It is a semi-soft Italian cheese that has a strong aroma but its flavor is comparatively mild with a buttery, fruity taste. The texture is moist to oozy. Spread any leftovers on bread and enjoy. If you have to substitute, I would recommend a strong Limburger, Fontina or Gruyere.
- kosher salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 2 kabocha squash about 3 lbs. each (or sugar
- pie pumpkins)
- freshly ground nutmeg
- 3 tb unsalted butter
- 4 ounces dried mushroomsâ - can be porcini alone or a mix of porcini,oyster and chanterelles
- 3 tb extra-virgin olive oil plus more for drizzling
- 10 large cipollini onions thinly sliced (or leeks)
- â¾ lbs sunchokes scrubbed and thinly sliced, about â¼ inch (unpeeled)
- 3 tb chopped fresh sage
- 1 c fresh breadcrumbs
- â½ lb taleggio cheese cubed
- white truffle oil or shavings of white
- truffles (optional)
- Carbohydrate 20.2710953295375 g
- Cholesterol 22.8975 mg
- Fat 20.2992806467965 g
- Fiber 1.3059906250161 g
- Protein 3.84374094065992 g
- Saturated Fat 7.24190262812119 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (77g)
- Sodium 244.173925173674 mg
- Sugar 18.9651047045214 g
- Trans Fat 1.17225387579629 g
- Calories 277 calories
Step-by-step
- Preheat the oven to 350-degree F.
- Put 4 oz dried mushrooms in a large bowl. Cover with boiling water. Set aside.
- Scrub clean the kabocha squash and cut off the top quarter of pumpkins (including stems). Scrape out and discard seeds and fiber.
- Generously season pumpkin cavities with salt, pepper and freshly grated nutmeg. Put 1 Tb butter in each cavity.
- In a large sauté pan over medium-high heat, warm 3 Tb olive oil.
- Add 10 large thinly sliced cipollini onions and cook, stirring, until translucent, 5 minutes. Season with salt.
- Stir in very thinly sliced unpeeled ¾ lbs of sunchokes and cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Reduce heat to medium, cover and cook 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile drain mushrooms and roughly chop. Add mushrooms to pan. Cook 2 minutes more. Season mixture to taste with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
- Stuff squash: Put squash on a rimmed baking sheet or roasting pan. Divide filling between cavities, packing down if necessary. Drizzle olive oil, cover with foil and cook in oven until tender, about 2 hours.
- Meanwhile in a sauté pan over medium-high heat, melt remaining 1 Tb butter.
- Add 3 Tb chopped fresh sage and cook 1 minute. Add 1 C fresh breadcrumbs and cook, stirring, until toasted, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.
- When squash is finished baking, remove from oven and mound each with cubed Taleggio cheese.
- Return to the oven until cheese melts, 5 minutes.
- Divide breadcrumb mixture over tops and return to oven for 2-3 minutes.
- Drizzle a little optional white truffle oil over squash.
- Let rest 5 minutes before serving.
Dried wild mushrooms do the heavy lifting in this dish by providing an intense burst of umami and a hydrating soaking liquid that seasons the interior of the squash cavity as it bakes. Because kabocha squash possesses a dense, dry flesh compared to standard pie pumpkins, heat transfer takes considerable time; plan for roughly two hours in a 350-degree Fahrenheit oven to guarantee the interior softens completely. Scrubbing sunchokes rather than peeling them preserves their structural integrity during the initial sauté, preventing the knobby tubers from turning to mush before they enter the oven. As the onions and sunchokes cook down, covering the pan traps steam to accelerate softening without requiring extra oil. When testing for doneness, bypass thermometers entirely and instead pierce the thickest part of the squash wall with a metal skewer; it should slide through the skin and flesh with zero resistance, mimicking a knife cutting through softened butter. Taleggio cheese introduces a pungent aroma that mellows under heat, melting into an oozy layer that contrasts with the final crunch of toasted sage breadcrumbs. Allowing the stuffed gourds to rest for five minutes off the heat lets the internal steam redistribute and firms up the melted cheese before portioning.
