Sweet Little Buttercup

Last night I fixed my recipe for Cannellini and Sausage for the second time and impressed anew with just how good and satisfying it is. This is a dish I could easily stuff myself with. Check it out, it’s seriously good.

To go along with it I cooked a buttercup squash.

Buttercup is a variety I haven’t run across before and I picked it up, along with a Gold Nugget, which was also new to me, at the Famers’ Market. I decided to roast it and mash it.

I cut the squash in half and roasted it at 400F until it was tender — about 45 minutes — and then let it cool. (I also washed and later roasted the seeds.) Once cool, I scraped the flesh into a bowl. To the squash, which came to about three cups, I added around 1/4 cup of molasses, 1/4 cup of butter, some salt, and — just for the hell of it — about three tablespoons of horseradish. Then I heated it back up in the microwave.

It was excellent. The butter and molasses provided richness and a slight dark sweetness, but the horseradish really made it. It provided some heat, but mostly it offered an aromatic pungency that delightfully complemented the flavor of the squash.

Note 1: The buttercup squash is the large dark green vegetable in the photograph.

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