Kürbisfest 2023: Roasted Butternut with Spinach and Cheese

Third in the series. Read the first post here.

The German word Kürbis covers both pumpkins and squash, possibly because pumpkins are squash. But then, so are zucchini, which is called Zucchini instead of Sommerkürbis, or Italienerkürbis, obviously just to mess with me.

Anyway, next on the chopping block is the Butternutkürbis (please note that for once the Denglish is not my fault). Last year I made it a couple of times, with brown sugar and butter as a side dish to pork, but this year I wanted to try out something savory as a main dish.

I don’t know where this recipe came from; I found it in my grimoire typed out in my own formatting style, but with no source, and I don’t recall ever making it before. Strange.

Start by roasting the halves with a little bit of olive oil and salt. Blind baking, so to speak.

While this is happening, clean and wilt the spinach. I chose a locally-grown winter variety, with a root ball, from the farmers market. [snotty food blogger on] Regional and seasonal is the way! [snotty food blogger off] I didn’t feel like walking an extra mile to the grocery store for a package of baby spinach when there’s spinach right there at the stand next to the egg wagon. I am nothing if not lazy efficient.

The bulk of the filling is cream cheese and shredded Grana Padano. The daily anti-meat propaganda beamed out by the German tax-funded media inspired me to add diced smoked ham; bacon would also be lovely here. But if you’re keeping kosher, the cheeses add enough salt and umami to make this thing tasty.

It’s baked again, until the cheese melts. Throw more ham on top, if you like.

We enjoyed this Kürbis with beer, green salad, and fresh ciabatta from the farmers market. Rice would also be nice, but [snotty food blogger on] Regional handwork is the way! [snotty food blogger off] I didn’t feel like walking an extra mile to the grocery store for a package of carbs when there’s carbs right there at the stand at the entrance… 😉