This Monday

Roasted Garlic and Butternut Squash Cassoulet

Roasted Garlic and Butternut Squash Cassoulet
From November 2006 Cooking Light Magazine



(If you want to prepare part of this ahead of time, you can bake the garlic ahead of time. You can also cooking the pancetta and onions in the Dutch oven, then put the Dutch oven in the fridge until the next day, when all you will have to do is add the rest of the ingredients, then put it in the oven. )

Lisa's comments: The most annoying part of this recipe is the cutting and peeling of the uncooked butternut squash. It was really frustrating the first time I did it. Now, I have a method, but if you are not so adventurous, you can buy precut squash at Trader Joe's.

Ingredients
1 whole garlic head
4 ounces pancetta, chopped (you can leave this out, just makes everything more bacony)
2 cups “vertically sliced” onions ( I don’t know what this means)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar (I just used white vinegar)
4.5 cups of cubed peeled butternut squash (about 2 lbs)
0.5 cups vegetable broth
½ teaspoon dried thyme
¼ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black better
4 (16 ounces) cans cannellini or other white beans, rinsed and drained
1 bay leaf
2 (1 ounce) slices of white bread ( I just used pre-made breadcrumbs)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley


1. Preheat oven to 350 F
2. Remove white papery skin from garlic head (do not peel or separate the cloves). Wrap garlic head in foil. Bake at 350 for 1 hour, cool to 10 minutes. Separate cloves, squeeze to extract garlic pulp. Set half of garlic pulp aside, reserve remaining garlic pulp for another use. Discard skins.
3. Head a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add pancetta, sauté 5 minutes or until crisp. Remove pancetta from pan, reserving drippings in pan. Add onion and 1 tablespoon oil to drippings in pan, suite 5 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-low, cook 25 minutes or until onion is very tender and browned, stirring frequently. Stir in vinegar.
4. Preheat oven to 375 F.
5. Add garlic pulp, pancetta, squash and next 6 ingredients (through bay leaf) to onion mixture, stirring well. Place bread in food processor, and pulse 10 times until coarse crumbs measure about 1 cup. (if using breadcrumbs, skip this step obviously). Combine breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese, and ½ teaspoon olive oil, sprinkle evenly over squash mixture.
6. Cover and make at 375 F for 50 minutes or until squash is tender. Uncover and bake an additional 15 minutes or until topping is browned. Discard bay leaf. Sprinkle with parsley.

posted by This Monday Morning @ 4:45 PM