This seasonal dish was a huge hit at our 2006 Slow Food Harvest Dinner and a week later at Thanksgiving. The flavors of fall and winter meld together in this gratin to create a nutty, rich, bubbling celebration of the harvest. The original recipe called for butternut squash, but I used a combination of our uncut Halloween pumpkin, delicata, acorn and carnival squashes I had lying around from the CSA.
Serves 8-10
3 lbs of fresh spinach, stems discarded, or 3 (10 oz) packages
of frozen leaf spinach, thawed
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3/4-teaspoon black pepper
1-teaspoon nutmeg (or 1/4 tsp. rounded fresh ground)
1-cup heavy cream
4 lbs of winter squash, peeled, seeded, and sliced very thinly lengthwise (a mandolin is ideal for this)
Use butternut, acorn, delicata, pumpkin, or other hard squash. A combination is ideal- the bigger the squash the easier to peel.
1/4 cup (1/2 oz) of finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
Butter a 3-quart shallow baking dish (13×9: not glass)
If using fresh spinach, bring 1 inch of water to a boil in a spaghetti pot over high heat. Add spinach, a few handfuls at a time and cook, turning with tongs, until wilted. Repeat. Drain and rinse under cold water.
Squeeze cooked or thawed spinach in small handfuls to remove excess water. Coarsely chop and transfer to a bowl.
In a large, heavy skillet over medium-low heat melt 3 tablespoons of the butter. Then add onion and garlic and cook until softened (3-5 minutes).
Add onion mixture to spinach and add salt, pepper, nutmeg and cream.
Layer squash and spinach mixture in the baking dish, using 1/5 squash and 1/4 spinach for each layer, beginning and ending with squash. Sprinkle top layer of squash evenly with cheese, then dot with remaining 2 tablespoons of butter. Cover with parchment or tinfoil, but try to keep off the cheese or the cheese sticks to the cover.
Bake until squash is tender and filling is bubbling (25-30 minutes). Remove the cover and bake until brown in spots (10-15 minutes) or broil 3 inches from heat for 2-3 minutes.
Note:
Gratin may be assembled but not cooked 1 day ahead. Let stand at room temperature for 1 hour before baking.
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