Hello, young Padawan
Here we go for a recipe of decadence, generosity, and good living in France! Today, we are going to knock our socks off with a hot, seasonal dish that is very fatty but not so bad for your diet because fat is life and tasty. What am I saying? Excellent!
So, I don’t know about you, but as a Haute-Savoie French girl, as soon as I smell the scent of onions and bacon browning, my brain goes into tartiflette mode. This recipe has neither potatoes nor reblochon, but we are still on a mountain dish, with a nice piece of Beaufort.
There are no long speeches to introduce this fabulous recipe since you will have some shopping to do, and an oven to preheat.
Here we go.
Squash stuffed with winter flavors.
For 4 servings
1 butternut squash
2.7 oz of smoked bacon, classic or veggie (1 small standard box)
3.5 oz of Beaufort (if you really can’t find Beaufort in your region, you can use Comté, but at least 15 months of ripening)
1 clove of garlic
1 large yellow onion
2 sprigs of rosemary
Salt, Voatsiperifery pepper from Madagascar.
Recipe
Preheat the oven to 356 °F.
Wash the rosemary sprigs, then the butternut squash, and dry them well. Using a good, sharp chef’s knife and a cutting board placed on a tea towel (so that the board doesn’t slide on your work surface. Try it; you’ll see the difference, chef’s word, ed.), cut the butternut squash in half, lengthwise.
Using a large spoon, remove the seeds. Still using a spoon, or if it’s too hard, using a metal ice cream scoop or a Parisienne apple scoop also works; remove the flesh of the squash, leaving a small centimeter thick (see photos). Cut the flesh into cubes.
Before cutting the piece of Beaufort into small cubes, grate a small part or cut a few shavings and set aside for the end of cooking. You just need enough to brown the top of the squash.
Peel and slice the onion, peel the garlic, and remove the germ. Press the garlic using a garlic press or finely slice it.
Pour the bacon and onions into a hot frying pan, and add the garlic. Brown for 5 minutes over medium-high heat. Add the squash cubes, stir well, and cook for another 5 minutes. Add the Beaufort cubes, and continue cooking until the cheese is almost melted, then turn off the heat and add pepper.
Place a sprig of rosemary in each squash half, a small pinch of salt, and a generous pinch of pepper, then stuff them with the mixture. Place them in a gratin dish, pour a cup of water into the bottom of the dish, cover with aluminum foil, and bake for 40 minutes. Once the forty minutes have passed, take the dish out of the oven, remove the aluminum foil, sprinkle with grated cheese, put it back in the oven, and continue cooking for 10-15 minutes, with the last 5 minutes in the grill position.
Take the dish out of the oven, add a final touch of Madagascar pepper, and let it cool a little.
Presentation
Cut each half squash in two and place them on pretty plates. This stuffed squash will go wonderfully with a pan-fried mushroom, an endive salad, and even a lamb’s lettuce salad, balsamic vinegar, and walnut oil. Gourmands can mix endive and lamb’s lettuce and add a few walnuts, you little rascals.
This dish is to be accompanied by a wine with character. I vote for a Gigondas, which will have breathed a good hour before serving.
All that remains for me is to wish you a wonderful appetite, with family or friends, a good cheesy and banal weekend as you wish (see the article here, ed.), and see you next Friday!
XO 🧅
