Eeek-What to do with all this squash?!
I hate wasting food. This is one of the times when allow myself to use the word “hate”. The five second rule has a long extension in our house. My heart breaks when I open that mystery tupperware in the back of the fridge to discover that a special leftover that I was coveting for my lunch, has grown a fuzzy sweater and has to be put out of its misery.
Turns out that a couple of these veggies were not squash but a cucumber like veggie that I had not tasted before. So after this photo, I replaced them with more squash. I then used my new favourite veggie in a rustic Greek salad to accompany the pasta.
I love the abundance of this time of year and we are delighted with our garden share basket every week but I am very careful to set aside hearty veggies like carrots, beets and potatoes to enjoy in a week or so and focus on the more perishable items. Recently I blanched and froze cabbage leaves to make cabbage rolls in the future and I have been grilling and freezing our squash varieties to try to keep up.
Last evening though I concocted a new use for zucchini and sunburst squash. The family loved it including an intern from out-of-town who is living with us until Christmas.
The quantities in this recipe are approximate for two reasons: a) by the time I get to test the recipe again, the urgency of the season may have past and 2) less stock or more vegetables will only change the consistency, not the taste.
A great deal of the marvelous flavour comes from the bacon and renderings, so if I were to convert the dish to a vegetarian recipe I would delete the bacon, use a vegetable oil and add more onion and garlic to punch up the flavour.
- 1 pound of bacon, cut into chunks
- 4 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1 liter of chicken or vegetable stock
- squash, for amount see photo, cut into chunks
- Saute bacon in a heavy bottomed pan, I used a braising pan
- When cooked to desired crispness, remove to paper towel with a slotted spoon
- Pour off whatever you would consider excess bacon fat, I used it all as my bacon was quite lean, leave at least 2 T in the pan
- Saute onion and garlic until fragrant
- Add squash and stock, bringing the mixture to a boil
- Cover with a tight fitting lid and let simmer about a half an hour
- When the squash has started to disintegrate, puree with emulsion blender
- Add bacon and toss with your favourite pasta
- Top with Parmesan if desired
Kath’s quote: “The first zucchini I ever saw I killed it with a hoe.”John Gould
Love-that is all.
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