The ingredients are very simple — butternut squash, which is in abundance in the grocery stores in the Fall, butter, olive oil, and gorgonzola cheese.

While the oven is heating up, add some butter and olive oil to a baking dish, and place it in the oven to melt.  The oven heats to 400 degrees, so keep a close eye on the butter because it can burn in the oven when it is this hot.  (If this happens — like it did with us tonight — simply pour out the burned butter and start over.)

To prepare the squash, first cut off the top and bottom of the butternut squash so that it will sit nicely on the cutting board when you peel the skin off the squash.

Cutting off the bottom of the squash.

Peeling the squash is not as easy as it looks.

Seriously, the squash rind is tough and takes some elbow grease to remove.  I used a little bit too much of that tonight and broke our favorite peeler.  I’ll be more careful this Thanksgiving.

Luckily, we always have a back up.  After the squash is peeled, cut it in half length-wise.

Using a spoon, remove the seeds and other gross stuff from the inside.  This is very similar to cleaning out the inside of a pumpkin.  (We’ll be carving our pumpkins next weekend!)

You may want to take another look at the squash and see if you need to peel off a bit more of the skin/rind, before you cut it up into pieces for roasting.

After you’ve properly peeled and de-seeded the squash, cut the squash into half moons about 3/4 to 1 inch thick.

Then cut the squash into inch-sized pieces.  While they do not need to be the same shape, the squash pieces should be approximately the same size, so that they all roast at the same rate and will be fully cooked at the same time.

When the squash is cut up into the proper pieces, add it to the hot baking dish.

Toss the squash in the butter mixture, making sure that the butter coats the chunks evenly so that each piece will brown on all sides.  Roast the squash for 45 to 60 minutes, turning the squash a few times throughout.

Once the squash is browned and cooked through, add some salt and pepper, toss, then add some gorgonzola cheese. Return to the oven to melt the cheese.

After a few minutes, the gorgonzola will be melted and the dish is ready to serve.  Or you can return it to a warm oven until the rest of the meal is ready.  The roasted butternut squash tastes like autumn on a plate, and the gorgonzola cheese is perfect with it.  Enjoy it on a weekend night and/or on Thanksgiving.  Either way, you’ll be thankful that you cooked this delicious side dish!

Roasted Butternut Squash with Gorgonzola

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1 Butternut squash
1/4 cup gorgonzola cheese (crumbled)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Add the butter and olive oil to a baking dish and place in the oven to melt the butter.  Keep an eye on it so that the butter doesn’t burn.

Peel squash, cut in half, and spoon out the seeds.  Cut the squash into one inch chunks.

Remove the baking dish from the oven (be careful, it’s hot!), add the squash to the baking dish, and toss with a big spatula to coat the squash in butter and olive oil.

Roast the squash for approximately an hour, turning the squash occasionally with a spatula to make sure that the squash cooks evenly.

Add salt and pepper to the squash, sprinkle with gorgonzola, and place back in the oven for a few more minutes (or under the broiler).

Note:  if you are making this dish with other oven dishes (like during Thanksgiving) you can cook the squash in a less hot oven.  Just increase the roasting time accordingly.

Print This