Baked Acorn Squash with Brown Butter and Herbs

Usually a sweet and earthy acorn squash warms souls on cool winter evenings. But I enjoy the rich flavors year-round. I find the tender squash, scraped into the oozy melted butter, hard to resist the other nine months of the year.

(Printable recipe)

Ingredients

· One acorn squash

· About 1 C  water

· 4 T butter

· 2 sprigs fresh rosemary

· 6-8 sage leaves, chopped

· Salt/pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 400°.

Using a large chef’s knife, carefully cut the squash in half. Squash often resist easy cutting, and their shape makes them prone to rolling about. I usually ask my husband to tackle this task.

Scoop out the seeds. I use my favorite kitchen multi-tasker: a grapefruit spoon. Even if you don’t eat grapefruit, the spoon’s serrated edge quickly and neatly scoops seeds from melons, squash, and cucumbers.

 

Carefully slice a small divot off the base of each half of the squash, so they don’t roll around in your baking dish (or on your dinner plate). Don’t cut off too much, or you’ll puncture the inner hollow, and all the yummy butter and herbs will run out into your baking dish!

 

Pour the water into a casserole or baking dish. Place the squash halves in the dish face down. The water should come up the sides of the squash about ¼ inch. Bake for 30 minutes.

 

I snipped this rosemary and sage right from my container garden. If you don’t grow your own, many grocery stores carry fresh herbs.

 

While the squash bakes, melt the butter in a skillet. Stirring frequently, cook the butter until the foam subsides and you see some browning. “Brown butter” (or buerre noisette) is simply butter cooked until the milk solids start to turn brown. It concentrates the flavor by burning off most of the water and creates a warm, nutty flavor (also delicious on other vegetables and fish). Stir in the rosemary sprig and the sage. Set aside.

 

Remove the squash from the oven and place the dish on a trivet. Using tongs, turn the squash so the cut side faces up. Be careful! That water in the base of the dish is hot, and you do not want to splash yourself. Brush the squash with the brown butter/herb mixture.

 

Let the extra butter and herbs drain down into the scooped-out portion. Bake it in the oven for another 30 minutes.

 

When done, remove rosemary leaves and stems. When plating, don’t spill any of the butter and sage—it’s too tasy to waste!