Squash season is here: how to pick, store, cut and roast it
Late October is when winter squash tastes best. Which kinds to buy, how to keep them sweet for months, and how to roast them so the edges caramelise.
The shelves in my storeroom are full of squash right now. Orange Hokkaido, a few pale butternuts, a green delica and one big knobbly ribbed squash that I keep for risotto. Late October is a sweet spot for them: picked in September, rested for a few weeks, and now properly ready to eat.
In Swedish shops you will see pumpkins everywhere this week, partly because Halloween falls on Saturday. Buy the carving pumpkins for the lanterns and the eating squash for the kitchen. Carving pumpkins are bred to be big and hollow, and their flesh is watery and bland.
Here is how I choose them, keep them and cook them, so nothing goes to waste.
Which squash to buy
- Hokkaido (red kuri): small, deep orange, with a thin skin you can eat once it is roasted. Dense, nutty and sweet. My everyday squash.
- Butternut: easy to peel, smooth flesh, the most reliable choice for soup and purée.
- Delica and kabocha: green skin, dry and floury flesh, almost like chestnut. Wonderful roasted in wedges.
- Big ribbed squash (muscade de Provence, marina di Chioggia): often sold by the slice. Deep flavour, good for risotto, gnocchi and tortelli filling.
- Spaghetti squash: mild and stringy when cooked. Nice with brown butter, but the least flavourful of the lot.
Choose a squash that feels heavy for its size, with a dry, hard stem still attached and no soft or wet spots. Knock on it with a knuckle: it should sound solid. A matt skin is a good sign, while a very glossy one can mean it was picked young.
How to keep them for months
A whole, unblemished squash is one of the easiest things in the kitchen to store. Mine sit on a shelf in a cool room, not touching each other, at roughly 10 to 15°C. Keep whole squash out of the fridge: below about 10°C they suffer chilling damage and rot sooner. A cool hallway, a spare bedroom or a frost-free storeroom all work.
- Butternut: two to three months.
- Hokkaido and kabocha: two to three months, and they get sweeter during the first few weeks.
- Big ribbed squash: often three months or more if the skin is perfect. Check them weekly.
- Cut squash: wrap the cut face, keep it in the fridge and use it within five days.
Bella's tip: The moment a squash shows a soft patch, roast it that day. Cut away the bad part, roast the rest in chunks, mash it and freeze it flat in bags. In January it goes straight into a risotto, a soup or a cake with no effort at all.
Cut it safely, roast it well
Squash skin is hard, and a squash that rolls is how people cut themselves. Slice a thin piece off one side so it sits flat, then use a heavy knife and work from the top down. With butternut, separate the neck from the bulb first: the neck is solid flesh and the bulb holds the seeds. Peel with a sturdy peeler. Hokkaido does not need peeling at all.
For roasting I cut wedges or 3 cm chunks, toss them with olive oil, salt and a few sage leaves, and give them a hot oven, 200 to 220°C, for 25 to 35 minutes. Space them out on the tray. Crowded squash steams and turns soft and pale. Spaced squash browns at the edges, and the browned edges are the best part.
Guide: roasting resting
Keep the seeds. Rinse off the strings, pat them dry, toss with a little oil and salt and roast at 160°C for about 15 minutes, until they crackle. My hens get the stringy bits, so nothing leaves the kitchen.
Three ways to cook it this week
Roasted squash is the start of half my autumn meals. These are the ones I would make first: a risotto that turns golden and creamy, a tray of squash with salty feta and honey, and pasta shells with brown butter and walnuts.
Recipe: butternut squash risotto with crispy sage
Recipe: roasted pumpkin with feta honey and thyme
Recipe: butternut squash pasta shells with brown butter and walnuts
In Mantua, about two hours from Milan, they fill tortelli with squash, crushed amaretti and mostarda for Christmas Eve. I start dreaming about that dish around now. Sweet, spicy and a little strange the first time, and then you cannot stop. Pour a glass of Barbera next to any of these and you will see why I carry squash home by the armful.
