Butternut squash & red onion
Our friends, Phil and Carolyn have a fabulous veg patch in their Pollença garden and they kindly allow us to raid it from time to time. This week it was full of beautiful butternut squash. I have been a huge fan of Yotam Ottolenghi for many years, the way he effortlessly blends substantial flavours is mouthwatering. So armed with our squash we had to give this one a go! In fact Carolyn (the neighbour!) made this a few weeks ago…I think it might have even been a bit better than mine 😀 We had ours with a succulent local chicken all cooked in the wood fire oven… enjoy this one.
Taken from Yotam Ottolenghi Jerusalem.
INGREDIENTS:
1 large butternut squash, cut into 2cm x 6cm wedges
2 red onions, cut into 3cm wedges
50ml olive oil
1 small garlic clove, crushed
1½ tbsp lemon juice
30g pine nuts
1 tbsp ZA'ATAR
1 tbsp roughly chopped flat leaf parsley
3½ tbsp TAHINI
2 tbsp water
Maldon sea salt and black pepper
METHOD:
-
We roasted our butternut squash and onions in the wood fire oven before cooking our chicken. If your are using an oven then set it to 240°C.
-
Mix the squash and onion with some of the olive oil, salt and pepper and toss well before adding to a baking tray or cazuela (wood fire oven approach) and roast for 30-40 minutes.
-
keep an eye on your onions as they might cook a bit quicker than the squash. Now little chef tip here... we had some confit garlic that we made in the wood fire oven a couple of weeks ago so we added a couple of cloves with the squash whilst it was roasting… delicious!
-
To make the sauce that brings this all together place the tahini in a bowl with the lemon juice, 2 tablespoons of water, the garlic and a pinch of salt. Whisk together until it has a consistency of honey.
-
Place the rest of the olive oil in a pan and cook the pine nuts with a pinch of salt, just a couple of minutes until you have a lovely golden brown colour. Pour into a small bowl when they are ready.
-
So now all you have to do is pull it all together. Place the vegetables on a large platter and drizzle over the dressing, sprinkle the pine nuts, scatter the parsley and shake on the za’atar.
-
Enjoy on it’s own, with wood fire chicken or some fabulous entrecôte from our local butcher.
​
If you fancy having a go at spatchcock chicken in the wood fired oven then take a look at the very inspiring ‘The Wood Fired Oven Chef’ on YouTube.
​
Original recipe by Ottolenghi