Picture Sundays: Squash Baby Harvest

squashbaby

Our straw bale garden yielded a couple of these monsters, a squash variety called Lunga di Napoli (Long of Naples).

Here’s where you come in–what do I do with all this squash? Suggestions?

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25 Comments

  1. Very impressive! I’ve got 6 inches of snow on the ground here, so it’s mind boggling to imagine a garden that you can still harvest from. The easiest thing would be to cut into chunks and roast. Then puree. Freeze in 2 cup containers and use when making soup (we’re soup eaters here in snowy New England.) Or, you could make a huge batch of soup and freeze that. That type of squash keeps very nicely frozen. I’d be tempted to make a pie out of some of it (but then again, I like to make pie out of most everything.)

  2. I’m in new England, too, so I second the soups and pies! We have much better luck storing our butternut over the winter than sweet potatoes, so we use it as a sweet potato substitute in recipes (though we haven’t tried fries yet). We have a pasta machine, and it’s great in a homemade ravioli with a sage-butter sauce! Also, I just made a couple versions of stuffed squash that were a hearty vegetarian dinner (recipes on the my blog for inspiration). If it tastes anything at all like pumpkin, you could also use some puree as a substitute for homemade pumpkin ice cream, too. Looks like a good problem to have!

  3. Agree that freezing would be the simplest solution. Then – using any recipe for pumpkin/butternut squash – make quick bread, muffins, pancakes & syrup (equal parts pureed squash & maple syrup), souffle, baked as a sidedish, and the aforementioned soup, pie & ice cream.

    Using it fresh, make it stuffed, broiled, sauteed, fried, all as a side dish or entree depending on additional ingredients.

  4. Send it to a local soup kitchen or food bank! You’ll likely only have enough stomach (and freezer) space for one of those, anyways. :^)

  5. it’s all about the pie over here. So is it delicious? We let three of our trombocino go to seed and they grew to be over 3′ long. One of them makes about 8 pies. The squash itself is not anything to write home about – it’s about as tasty as a yellow crookneck squash, so as far as winter squash goes it doesn’t rank too highly. I found that if I take the recipe for a single crust and roll it thinly I can get aaaalmost two crusts. I also use regular low-fat milk and add less sugar in the custard – we can still make an acceptable pie that the kids devour and I don’t feel so bad about.

  6. Invite lots of friends over for a squash based dinner party. Freeze anything that doesn’t get used.

  7. 1. Always slice and dry some of it. So you can taste it later and know if it is a good dried squash. This is your soup/stirfry option

    2. I find children like butternut squash cinnamon rolls. Google for recipe. I don’t know if the flavor is anything like butternut though. Worth a try.

    3. I find squash to partner especially well with turkey, duck or other heavy flavored birds. I don’t know if you’re a meat eater or not so please disregard if that is not on your list of foods.

    4. Many like to make chips from it with a bit of soy sauce and garlic powder or ground chili and lime. You can also cook it and serve it as a side with those flavors. (I like to replace the soysauce with ponzu for a nice top note)

    5. I recommend cubing it and baking it and then making an indonesian peanut sauce, a few other veggies and mixing all together with a bit of rice if you wish.

    6. Your favorite curry dish. You can also use the dried squash for this. I recommend making both small cubes of squash as well as slices when you dry for versatility in baking/cooking later. Soak in hot water before cooking to re-hydrate.

    Enjoy!! Let us know where it sits on the flavor spectrum. I’m zone 4 so very unlikely to be growing such a wonderful squash but am still curious.

  8. After you roast the flesh, scoop it out and use it to make a winter squash flan. I made a honey nut squash flan, topped with gorgonzola and toasted hazelnuts. You can also go the sweet route and use the flesh to make a custard with coconut milk and palm sugar.

  9. Definitely pies, puddings, and muffins! We also love using it in a vegetarian lasagna. The Mother Earth News had a great recipe for squash lasagna a couple of years ago. Delish!

  10. Know this squash well – and there are good suggestions above: it freezes well, especially if roasted first. it dries well. it makes great soup. it makes the best pumpkin pie you’ve ever tasted. Drying takes up the least space, but will take awhile to get rehydrated and cooked. it can be a bit stringy. have a neighbor who gets a few dozen of these every year which she is kind enough to share :). I’ve shared seeds with a friend in Maine and she regularly wins ribbons with hers. between the two of them, I’ve stopped growing the stuff

  11. I use squash to make vegan rolls, as a thickener.for.soups and.stews, add it to mashed potatoes, or have it as a side dish on its own.

  12. To vary a bit from soup and pie these are some of my favorite recipes with squash:

    pumpkin risotto with gorgonzola and chestnuts
    http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/jan/04/pumpkin-risotto-gorgonzola-chestnuts-recipe

    Membrillo and stilton quiche
    http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/dec/02/christmas-party-food-yotam-ottolenghi

    butternut squash and tahini spread recipe
    http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/sep/09/butternut-tahini-spread-batata-recipes

    I am not sure how hardy or watery this variety is, but if it is watery you could try this recipe to preserve them:
    http://pieceoplastic.com/index.php/3788/pickled-curry-zucchini/

  13. You could turn into that neighbor trying to give away the extra zucchini: cut it, bag it, drop it on your unsuspecting neighbors porch, ring the doorbell, and run… what could possibly go wrong?

    I like the pie idea, cook some, blend it and add it to all sorts of baked goods – squash bread? Ravioli, stuffed pasta, enchiladas. My favorite is to simply coat it lightly in oil, add salt & pepper and roast it in a large roasting pan. After that I eat it out of hand, make soups and if I ate eggs, I’d probably fold some of it into am omelet.

  14. Pumpkin bread! Especially if you find that the taste of the squash alone is not the best ever. We had a squash just about this big from our CSA a few years ago, but it was a little bland for my taste in soup or pie. Two friends were staying with us at the time, and we roasted the whole thing and just made loaf after loaf of “squash cake”— problem solved!

  15. I make a concentrated puree ala Ben Starr (He has a blog and recipes here: http://benstarr.com/recipes/ His cranberry sauce is terrific!). After roasting and pureeing the pumpkin, I cover a doubled up towel with paper towels and spread the puree out and cover the top with the towel. The water gets absorbed out and I fold up the puree and dump it neatly into a bowl or pack it into a container. I use this for pumpkin pies and Ben Starr’s amazing pumpkin carrot cake. I’m happy to see you were able to grow a squash baby successfully without anyone nabbing it! I had one of mine stolen from the front yard, and the second was unfortunately just shy of being ready to pick before winter killed the plant. I’d like to grow a musquee du provence pumpkin this year, I bought one and a long island cheese pumpkin from the farmer’s market, and while the long island cheese had a fabulous classic pumpkin taste, the musquee had vermillion flesh and amazing rich flavor! Oh yeah, there’s also a great pumpkin cookie recipe here: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Iced-Pumpkin-Cookies/Detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Title&e11=pumpkin%20cookie&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e7=Home%20Page

  16. Pingback: SQUASH CHAMPIONSHIPS 2014

  17. I would use it as an excuse for a dinner party and make it into a vehicle for some risotto or similar dish. Roast halved squash to nearly tender and fill with other recipe. Then put it under the broiler with some parm and serve it hot. What a serving vessel!

    Once I get me another garden, this is going on my list 🙂

  18. Haha, I guess you’d need to build an oven for it first :p

    You could bake it in the ground. The veg alternative to a pig roast 🙂

    • That’s a funny idea. We actually have an informal archery range in our backyard so I’ll keep this in mind.

  19. I grew this variety and from a few plants produced nearly a 1/4 ton of squash. Here’s the post with the pictures to prove it. (= http://scientificgardener.blogspot.com/2012/01/long-of-naples-fine-italian-summer.html

    I recommend squash soup or pies. I made both pies and soup. The flesh is slightly moist and putting aside the harder ones to mature does help to decrease the moisture content slightly. This variety does require a long growing season but produces quite prolifically near the end. The texture is similar to other Moschata-type squashes. After growing a fine delicata squash variety this last year I think I would only go back to long of Naples if I wanted a TON of summer squash (they make the best summer squash when they are young and small (between 10-15 lbs) or if my family needed the food to live off of.

  20. We are going to install a straw bale garden at Grant High School in Van Nuys and this information is exactly what we can use.

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