Since we always celebrate the major holidays at our house, we are always looking for new recipes to try out. On Friday morning, we were flipping through the TV and stopped on Everyday Italian, a show we had never watched before. The hostess, Giada De Laurentis, was reviewing vegetable recipes. One of the featured recipes was a squash and pesto dish but unfortunately, they don’t publish the recipes on Foodtv.ca, so we had to go freestyle. The above picture is the result of our Easter squash dish that although it has many flavours in each mouthful, will probably become a regular in our house. Even our 12 year old liked it.
Take one large butternut squash (we used 3 small ones). Cut and cube it and boil it until soft. When cooked, put it in a food processor until pureed. (We don’t have a processor so we mashed it). Butter a rectangular baking dish and add half of the squash mixture and spead it over the bottom of the dish. Take some store bought pesto (or homemade if you are ambitious) and add a layer of that on top of the squash. Cover the pesto with fresh, grated parmesan cheese. Follow with a layer of the remaining squash and a layer of the pesto and cover with more parmesan cheese. Bake uncovered in a 350 degree oven for 40 minutes or until the cheese is crispy. (We actually cooked it for 40 minutes and then put it under the broiler. Just be careful the cheese doesn’t burn.
As I said, each mouthful has a bunch of flavours but it is really tasty and a very different and distinct vegetable dish.
