It's CSA Day, and Summer Squash Gratin

Look for another post today or tomorrow about our CSA bounty this week!  We pick our share up between 5:30pm and 6:30pm on Fridays.


So, last week we had a sizable amount of zucchini come in our CSA share.  We love zucchini grilled or sauteed as a side dish, but side dishes weren't going to cut it with the amount of yellow squash coming out of the garden, or the zucchini coming from the CSA.  So, into the kitchen we went for some zucchini-centric main dishes.

First, Joe developed a summer squash gratin.

This was particularly awesome because not only do I love gratins, but it used up four veggies and even the last bit of baguette from the last baking day.   We used the Italian peppers and the purple peppers,
 a yellow summer squash and a zucchini, and made fresh breadcrumbs.



Summer Squash Gratin
serves 4 as a main course
 
2 zucchini 
2 yellow summer squash 
6 small Italian sweet peppers
1 purple bell pepper
1 onion, diced
2 cups whole milk
6 oz sharp cheddar cheese, grated
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
2.5 Tbsp all-purpose flour
5.5 Tbsp butter
4 oz bacon, diced
3 Tbsp Parmesan Reggiano

First, put together your mise en place.  Quarter the squashes and cut them into 1/2" chunks, grate your cheeses, dice the bacon, seed, rib and slice the peppers.  Pre-heat your oven to 375F, and pull the Dutch oven out of the cabinet. 





Put the bacon in a cold pan, and turn the heat onto medium.  Heating the pan and the bacon at the same time will render more of the fat, which is good for this recipe.  You want super crunchy bacon to add some textural interest to the dish.  Let the bacon cook as you work on the vegetables.

Melt a tablespoon of butter, and work it through the breadcrumbs with your fingers.  Spread the buttered crumbs out in a small baking dish and bake the crumbs until they're golden brown and toasted.  Remove from oven and let cool.

In the Dutch oven, melt 1 Tbsp of the butter over medium heat, and saute both of the squashes until you start to get some color but the flesh is still reasonably firm.  Remove from the pot and set aside.





Melt a second tablespoon of butter into the pot, and then add the onion.  Saute it until it's softened and slightly translucent, and then add the peppers.  Saute onions and peppers together until the peppers are tender.  Remove peppers from pot.  Check the bacon -- it should be getting close to done.  When it's fully cooked, turn the bacon out onto paper towels to drain.

Add 2.5 Tbsp of butter to the pot, and heat until the foaming subsides.  The foam is the water being boiled out of the butter, leaving behind just the oils.  If you did this carefully in a separate pan, you'd be making clarified butter.  This is quick and dirty and just right for a rustic dish like this gratin.  Once the foaming has gone down, stir in the flour.  Congrats, you've made a roux!  Keep stirring the roux until it's a golden-brown color and the raw flour taste is gone.  Return the peppers and onions to the pot, and stir to coat them with the roux.  Whisk in the milk, and keep stirring constantly until the mixture is thick and bubbly (somewhere around six minutes).  Remove the pot form heat, and stir in the cheese.  Stir in the bacon.  Finally, return the squash to the pot, and fold it into the cheese mixture gently.  You don't want to smush the squash.  (Which is totally fun to say).

Mix the Parmesan with your cooled breadcrumbs, and spread over the top of the gratin.  Technically, you could and should transfer the gratin to a 9x13 baking dish or gratin pan now, but we were lazy and kept it in the Dutch oven.  Bake at 375 for about a half hour.

Serve with a crusty bread to soak up all the cheesy goodness.  We served with the last loaf of the cheese bread I baked two days before.

 

 

 

 

 

Don't worry about plating -- this is about as rustic as it gets

Even rustic food deserves wine!  A bright, mineral-y wine like a Sauvignon Blanc (aka Fume Blanc in California) contrasts nicely with the richness of the cheese and bacon.

This recipe could be easily made vegetarian by omission of the bacon and it'd be just as good.  You can also substitute just about any kind of sweet pepper you want for the Italian and purple bell peppers.  Swiss or Gruyere cheese could be used instead of Cheddar, just do what you feel.  There's also no reason you couldn't use 2% milk for a lighter version, though I don't think it'd work if you tried to use fat-free milk.  Be creative and have fun!



As for the second main course using squash, here it is!

I wasn't feeling well at the beginning of the week, so Joe pampered me by making risotto.  This is a variation on classic Milanese risotto (see the saffron threads?), with red bell pepper and zucchini added.  I'm thinking of calling it Risotto d'Estate -- why should Pasta d'Primavera have all the fun?

Thursday Farmer's Market and Roasted Beet Pasta

Welcome to the Thursday Farmer's Market in Manassas!

 I got up today and headed straight for the Manassas Farmer's Market (and remembered to bring my camera this time).  I got a little distracted by my shopping, so here's a couple of photos to tide you over until next week.

Cherokee Purples, Brandywine Pinks, and Stripeys, oh my!

It's a pepper explosion! 

I love the market because it's a great way to fill out what we get from the CSA -- aromatics like onions and general purpose veggies like bell peppers are currently in season but we didn't get any in our share, so this tides us over until we start getting them.  And, it's the place where we get our meat and dairy, so it's doubly important.  We will be making a pilgrimage to some of the other markets in the DC area, including the Arlington market (which is year-round, those lucky bastards!) but it's nice to have such a good, producer-focused market close to home.

So what did I buy today?  Almost two pounds of red bell peppers for $4.00, a big bag of 'second' peaches for $4.50, a pound of pork chorizo sausage for $5.70, and two gorgeous beef shanks for $7.00.  On Saturday we bought a half-gallon of whole milk for $4.25 (and a $1.75 bottle deposit), some red onions for $3.00, 4 ounces of fresh goat cheese for $4.00, a pint of Rainier cherries for $3.50, and 11 pounds of bones for making stock for $14.  We also picked up some Parmesan Reggiano and  Cabot sharp cheddar from a 'real' store for $28.  That brings our total for the week to $79.70, plus the $30 for the CSA.  So we're four bucks over for the week (Curses!), but the stock that is currently simmering on the stove will last us for the next few months.  All in all, I feel like we're not doing too badly at all.

  And here's your food porn for the day, since I've been a little spotty on posts and I'm trying to catch up. ]

Last week Joe and I were trying to decide what to do with our beets, and Joe found this gorgeous recipe for a roasted beet pasta.  The blog he found it on is called Food And Style, and it's the sort of beautiful, high-production-value blog that I aspire to some day become.  You can find the recipe and Viviane's incredible beauty shot here.  The recipe itself is vegan, but Joe and I can't see a dish of pasta without wanting to grate some Parmesan onto it, and we liked the additional depth of flavor that the cheese added.

[defensive]  I like that my homemade pasta ended up that pretty variegated red to pink to white instead of Viviane's even and lovely ruby colour.  [/defensive]