by Ross Bowles & Tracie Zahavich, Fox and Monocle Café | photo by Janis Jean Photography – 

We are in love with squash at Fox and Monocle Café. The versatility of squash is what makes it a favourite fall and winter ingredient – it lends itself to both sweet and savoury dishes. Squash is a great blank canvas for other flavours like cheese, nuts, herbs and spices to be showcased. From kabocha, red kuri and delicata to acorn, butternut and all the lesser-known varieties, you’re spoiled for choice on Vancouver Island. It’s a joy to pick up a squash and show your guests a flavour or texture they have never experienced. Dressed up, or served plainly roasted, squash is always a
star ingredient on our table. Oh my gourd let’s get started!

Roasted Squash-Filled Pasta

Pasta Filling
2 1/4 cups roasted kabocha squash flesh
1/4 cup brown butter
1/8 cup diced shallots
10 leaves sage, chopped
1/3 tsp salt

Filling:
Cut in half and remove seeds from a kabocha squash; roast at 350° until fully tender. Scoop out the amount of squash flesh you need.

Put the butter and salt in a sauce pan and cook on medium heat until it’s goes light brown and smells nutty. Add the shallots to the butter and continue to cook for about 2 minutes.

Pour butter and shallot mixture into a bowl. With a whisk, combine your butter mixture, squash and chopped herbs.

Pasta Dough
4 1/4 cups flour
7 egg yolks
4 whole eggs
¾ tsp salt
1 tbsp olive oil

Dough:
Add flour and salt into a food processor. Whisk together eggs and olive oil. Turn the food processor on and while it’s running, slowly drizzle in the egg mixture.

Remove the dough from the food processor, knead briefly and wrap in plastic and rest for a minimum of 2 hours. Roll pasta out very thinly (2mm)

Use a cookie cutter to cut circles out of the dough; place a small scoop of filling in the centre of the circle.

Lightly brush some water on the pasta, fold it over and press the pasta together to seal. You can make any pasta shapes you like.

When ready, blanch in boiling water for about 3.5 minutes and serve.

Squash Tart

Tart Shell
2 1/2 cups flour
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup diced butter
¼ cup water

In a mixer combine salt, flour and cold diced butter (1cm cubes) and paddle on low speed until a fine crumb has developed. This can also be done by hand with a fork. Pour in the cold water and continue to mix on low speed or by hand until the dough has come together and looks mostly uniform.

Rest dough for an hour and then roll out thin – about 5mm. Line 9-inch tart ring with dough and trim off excess. Bake tart shell with a weight inside to keep it from bubbling up (rice in parchment paper works well) at 350° for 40 minutes. Should be golden on the edges.

Remove weights and pour in squash custard. Drop temperature to 325° and continue to cook for about 25 minutes – the centre should just have a slight jiggle. Cool, Remove from tart shell, cut and serve

Tart Filling (Squash Custard)
1 cup milk
1 cup cream
5 large eggs
4 cups roasted pumpkin flesh
1.5 tsp salt
1/4 tsp each pepper, paprika, clove, nutmeg

Halve and deseed a pumpkin and roast at 350° until fully tender, then scoop out the amount of squash flesh you need. Combine all ingredients with blender

Squash Soup

1 cup shallots, sliced
5 cloves garlic
1 ¼ cups butter
3 tsp salt
4 ½ cups roasted butternut squash
9 cups water
1.5 cups cream
1 tsp Marmite
1/2 tsp each pepper, clove, paprika, nutmeg

Halve and seed Butternut squash and roast at 350° until fully tender. Scoop out the amount of flesh you need.

Put butter in sauce pan on medium heat and lightly brown. Add the shallot, garlic and spices and continue to cook for 2-3 minutes. Add all remaining ingredients and bring to a simmer. Simmer 30 minutes.

Blend and pass through sieve, then serve.