During the week, my kitchen is not a space to play hard-to-get.
Dinner participants may not present the risk of flesh wounds or more than the 30 minutes of time I usually have before a child-shaped lump crumples at my feet crying famine.
Delicata squash--so appropriately named, so cooperative, so attractive--yields to a regular old chef's knife with nary a grunt or expletive expended.
Even the seeds scoop away with the sweep of a tablespoon.
(A more enterprising eater might even save them to roast in their own little pile.)
I will wilt some kale with a trickle of maple syrup and a flick of aleppo pepper.
And sometimes get so far as to crisp up a can of chickpeas for a fun-in-our-household topping.
Or to impose a wedge of feta onto the corner of the baking sheet to share the warmth and otherworldly spices.
If I also tuck a foil-wrapped, za-atar-blasted whole-wheat pita into the oven at meltdown minus three minutes?
Well, then.
Who's sitting pretty now?
Roasted Moroccan-spiced delicata squash with red onions
Serves 2
- 2 delicately-sized delicata squash
- 1 red onion, fairly thinly sliced
- 1-1/2 Tbsp. olive oil
- 2 tsp. Ras al Hanout
- 1 tsp. salt
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Cut the tops and bottoms off of your squash (but please don't squash their dreams). Cut them lengthwise and then run a tablespoon down their centers to remove their seeds. Put them cut-side down on your cutting board to slice into 1/2-inch crescents.
In a mixing bowl, toss the squash slices and onion slices with the olive oil, Ras al Hanout, and salt.
Spill the moons onto a baking sheet and roast 20-30 minutes--until burnished brown and impossible to keep your hands off of.