While making my weekly shopping, I noticed I had half of a large butternut squash left over from last week’s Penne with Squash and Black Beans. Not wanting it to go to waste, and not feeling like any of my go-to butternut squash recipes led over to Epicurious. A search for “butternut squash” as the main ingredient in a main dish, and sorted by top rated, yielded Roasted Butternut Squash and Caramelized Onion Tart right near the top. It spoke to me. 93 reviews, four forks, and 99% would make it again? Even better!
This meal is delicious, no doubt about it. But, this meal is not one for the weak at heart. I cooked and I cooked and I cooked. Interspersed with the cooking was dishes. I did three sink-fulls of dishes in the process of making this meal.
But it was fun! And the result was to.die.for.
It started with the making of the pastry dough.
Since I don’t have a food processor I use my blender.
Then, it gets chilled for 1/2 hour.
Meanwhile the butternut squash gets roasted (I was worried I didn’t have enough, so I added a half of an orange pepper too).
[I seem to have not photographed this step. Just imagine some butternut squash, roasting away!]
The fun part? The cheese. Delicious (and expensive) fontina, parmesan and goat-cheese. Amazing.
Then its time to make your pie-crusts. This is hard if your pastry is sticky. My rolling pin and I were having mini war with the whole-wheat pastry crust, so I ended up just smooshing it in the pie tin. The recipe calls for a tart pan with a removable fluted rim. I don’t have that, so I used two aluminium pie pans. It made for super easy lining with tin foil another pie tin and filling with pie weights barley.
In all this excitement, I *almost* forgot the caramelize my onions.
Meanwhile, remember your roast butternut squash (and, in my case, orange pepper). Undertake some pureeing action, add some other things, like heavy cream, and blend.
Then you mix in your onions, and delicious cheeses.
Then, hopefully your timing works out and you have pie-crusts that are ready for some savoury filling. Pop them in the oven.
And forty minutes later…
Roasted Butternut Squash and Caramelized Onion Tart! After a total of approximately 2 hours of cooking and cleaning and waiting.
I decided to serve it with a spinach salad with blue cheese, cranberries and walnuts with a simple EVOO and white wine vinegar salad dressing.
Oh. My. God. Was this ever good. The hubs said it tastes like “butternut squash, in pie form”. No quite what I was going for, but you take what you can get right. Truly, it was good. The pie crust was perfectly flaky.
And, it’s Saturday, so to finish off… macarons! Coconut, Hazelnut Milk Chocolate, and Lemon. Coconut seriously rocked my world.
If you are wondering, we pick these delicious macarons up at Lemontree outside of outside Lively Life at the St. Lawrence Market.
I love macarons. We are so going to Ladurée when we go to Paris. Maybe every day.
Roasted Butternut Squash and Caramelized Onion Tart
Adapted from Epicurious.
Pastry Dough
Ingredients
- stick ( 1/2 cup) cold unsalted butter
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour [I used whole-wheat flour cause that’s what I have in my house]
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup ice water
Cut butter into pieces. In a food processor blend flour, sugar, and salt until combined. Add butter and pulse until most of mixture resembles coarse meal with remainder in small (roughly pea-size) lumps. Add 2 tablespoons of water and pulse just until incorporated. Test mixture by gently squeezing a small handful: If it does not hold together, add enough remaining water, 1 tablespoon at a time, pulsing and testing, until mixture just forms a dough. Form dough into a disk. Chill dough, wrapped in plastic wrap, 30 minutes.
Tart
- pastry dough
- pie weights or raw rice for weighting shell
- 1 small butternut squash (about 1 pound)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil plus about 2 teaspoons for brushing squash
- 1 small onion
- 1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 whole large egg
- 1/2 large egg yolk (1/2 tablespoon)
- 1/3 cup heavy cream
- 3/4 cup grated Italian Fontina cheese (about 2 1/2 ounces)
- 1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan (about 1 ounce)
- 1/4 cup crumbled mild soft goat cheese (about 1 ounce)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh herbs such as rosemary, thyme, and marjoram leaves
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1/3 cup fine fresh bread crumbs
On a lightly floured surface roll out dough into a 12-inch round (about 1/8 inch thick). Fit dough into an 11-inch tart pan with a removable fluted rim. Freeze shell 15 minutes.
Preheat oven to 375°F.
Line shell with foil and fill with pie weights or raw rice. Bake shell in middle of oven until edge is pale golden, about 20 minutes. Carefully remove foil and weights or rice and bake shell 10 minutes more, or until bottom is golden. Leave oven on. Cool shell in pan on a rack.
Halve squash and scoop out seeds. Lightly brush each cut side with about 1 teaspoon oil and on a baking sheet roast squash, cut sides down, in middle of oven 40 minutes, or until soft.
While squash is roasting, thinly slice onion and in a heavy skillet cook in 1/2 tablespoon butter and remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons oil over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until soft and golden brown, about 20 minutes.
Cool squash and scoop out flesh. In a food processor purée squash. Add whole egg, egg yolk, and cream and blend well. Transfer mixture to a large bowl and stir in cheeses, herbs, onion, salt, and pepper to taste. Pour filling into shell, smoothing top.
In a small skillet melt remaining tablespoon butter and stir in bread crumbs until combined well. Sprinkle bread crumb mixture evenly over filling. Bake tart in middle of oven 40 minutes, or until filling is set. Cool tart in pan on rack 10 minutes and carefully remove rim.
Looks great and the salad looks delicious!