Food on Friday: Squash three ways

Pumpkin shrimp curry

I love butternut squash, but I rarely cooked with it until last year. For some reason I felt compelled to buy an entire squash and cut it up myself. It’s not an easy task, and inevitably led cuss words, tired arms, and lots of wasted squash. Then one day I realized that I can buy the stuff that’s already cut up and save myself a lot of work. Now I cook with it all the time. Last week I bought one three pound package of squash cubes, covered them with salt, pepper, and olive oil, and roasted it all in the oven at 375 degrees. I used it throughout the week for the following three recipes:

Butternut Squash, Ricotta and Sage Crostini:
We made this for a party, using grilled bread instead of toasted. As always, the grilled bread was the star of the show. This makes a great fall appetizer.

Pumpkin Shrimp Curry:
I am a curry fanatic, and I’ve often tried to duplicate one of my favorites from our old San Francisco haunt Burma Superstar. This was the first curry dish (or savory dish of any kind) where I’ve used canned pumpkin. It was delish, and I’ll definitely make it again – even the baby loved it.

Butternut Squash Risotto:
This was as simple as risotto gets. I substituted chives for sage and we had it for a simple weeknight supper.