Food Lust People Love: Grana Padano

Roasted butternut squash and garlicky kale mixed with cheese and eggs are topped with herby breadcrumbs and baked for a great vegetarian main course or side dish I'm calling Butternut Squash Tian.

Food Lust People Love: Roasted butternut squash and garlicky kale mixed with cheese and eggs are topped with herby breadcrumbs and baked for a great vegetarian main course or side dish I'm calling Butternut Squash Tian.

I am always on the lookout for vegetarian recipes that make a great side but are also hearty enough to be eaten as a main dish. This recipe, adapted from Faith Durand’s post on TheKitchn can do both quite admirably. I decided to pretty it up from the usual casserole by baking it in a spring-form pan and serving it in slices. And before a load of angry French folk wielding Opinels arrive to object to my use of the word “tian,” (Bienvenue!) may I just say that I had never heard of the word before I saved the recipe almost a year ago, despite living for three years in France.

After a little research, I do now understand that the tian itself is the vessel AND the vegetable gratin that is cooked in it, so my pan choice probably means that this no longer qualifies as a tian. What can I say? It’s still delicious! And pretty! How many casseroles can say that?

This week on Sunday Supper, we are celebrating the arrival of Fall with comforting dishes using seasonal ingredients. Butternut squash is one of my favorites. And so is kale. Make sure you scroll to the bottom of this recipe to see all the other seasonal dishes on offer.

Ingredients

For the tian:

About 4lb or 1.9kg whole butternut squash

Olive oil for roasting

1/2 cup or 100g short-grain or arborio rice

1 3/4 oz or 50g freshly grated Grana Padano or Parmesan cheese

7 oz or 200g smoked cheese

2 large cloves garlic

5-6 large stems curly kale

3 large eggs

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the herb topping:

1 cup or 80g dried bread crumbs

1 big handful flat leaf parsley, leaves only

Leaves from 3 to 4 sprigs of thyme and/or rosemary (I used some of each.)

1 3/4 oz or 50g freshly grated Grana Padano or Parmesan cheese

2 tablespoons olive oil

Method

Preheat your oven to 400°F or 200°C and prepare your eventual baking pan or casserole dish by greasing it liberally. If you have an actual earthenware tian , more power to you! (My spring-form pan was 8 in or 20cm in diameter and about 3 in or 7 1/2cm deep.)

Peel the butternut squash, scrape the seeds out, and cut it into chunks.

Pile the squash up in a large roasting pan (not the one you’ve already prepared for baking the finished dish!) and drizzle liberally with olive oil. Toss the squash around a little so that it is well coated with the oil and then spread the chunks out into one layer. Sprinkle with flakey sea salt.

Roast for about one hour in your hot oven or until the butternut squash is fork tender and the edges have gone golden. You'll want to stir it around about half way through.

While the squash is roasting, boil your rice in salted water with a drizzle of olive oil, just as you would pasta. Keep a close eye on it. Since Arborio rice has such a high starch content, it tends to want to boil up and over. When the rice is just cooked - test a grain or two occasionally – drain the water out and set the rice aside to cool.

Grate all of your cheeses and make sure to divide the Grana Padano pile in half, some for the tian, some for the herb topping.

Meanwhile, remove the stems from your kale and chop it into small bits.

Mince your garlic then sauté it in a little olive oil being careful not to let it color. Add in the chopped kale and a sprinkle of sea salt. Cook, covered, until the kale is completely wilted. Set aside to cool.

To make your breadcrumb topping, add all of the dry ingredients to your food processor and process until it is completely uniform.

Add in the two tablespoons of olive oil and process again. Depending on the type of baking dish you use, you may have leftover topping. Store this in a bag in the freezer. It can be used for topping baked fish, much like in this delicious Bill Granger recipe .

When the squash is roasted, remove it from the oven and turn the oven down to 350°F or 180°C. Mash the squash with a potato masher and set it aside to cool slightly.

In a large bowl, whisk your eggs and then add in the butternut squash. Mix well.

Now add in the rest all of your tian ingredients: The wilted, garlicky kale, the cooked rice, all of the smoked cheese and the other half of the Grana Padano cheese that wasn’t used in the topping. Give the whole lot a good couple of grinds of fresh black pepper and then mix well.

Spoon the mixture into your prepared baking pan and smooth it out.

Top liberally with the herby breadcrumbs. As mentioned before, you can bake this in a larger casserole, in which case, you’ll probably use all of the breadcrumbs. For my smaller, deeper pan, I ended up using just about half. Pat the herb topping down so it doesn’t fall off later when serving.

Bake for one-hour, covering the top with foil part way through if the breadcrumb topping is getting too browned. Check that it is cooked through by putting a knife in and leaving it there for about 30 seconds. The knife should be very hot to the touch when it is removed. If you are using a shallower casserole dish, this may not take the full hour.

To remove from the spring-form pan, allow the tian to cool for a few minutes and then run a knife around the sides before releasing the catch.

Run a knife under the tian to loosen it from the base.

Slide to a serving plate, cut into slices and serve warm.

Enjoy!

Many thanks to our Sunday Supper host this week, Soni from Soni's Food. We got news just yesterday that her family has suffered a major loss with the unexpected passing of her father. If you are so inclined, please keep them in your prayers.

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