Whether you are excited about the change to the fall season or lamenting the passing of summer, we are definitely headed into the fall produce season. If you go to farmer’s markets, you will start to notice the arrival of various types of apples and pears and things like winter squash. One of my wife’s favorite varieties of winter squash is the butternut variety and as such, I try to make it fairly often in the fall moving into the winter season.

This dish is very simple, combining several fall ingredients with one of the ultimate fall cooking methods, roasting. The dish takes about 40 minutes to make and only contains a handful of ingredients but the flavors end up really making this dish sing.  Recipe follows after the jump…

Ingredients:

1 Butternut Squash

Grapeseed oil

Coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

¼ Cup real maple syrup

1 Teaspoon cinnamon

A few grates of fresh nutmeg

Dash of cayenne pepper

4-5 Leaves of fresh sage, roughly chopped

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

• While the oven preheats, prepare the squash for roasting by cutting it in half.  Remove the seeds and scrape the stringy pulp out of the cavity.

• Once that’s completed, chop the squash into 1 inch segments (will look like half moons).

• In a dish, drizzle a bit of grapeseed oil and then toss the squash segments in the oil so that all sides are well coated.

• Prepare a baking sheet (you may need two) by placing parchment paper over the baking sheet.  Arrange the butternut squash on baking sheet(s) making sure to not overcrowd the pan.  Sprinkle coarse sea salt over the squash and sprinkle a bit of freshly ground pepper over the top of that.

• Place baking sheets in oven and roast for 20 minutes.  After 20 minutes, remove baking sheets from oven, turn the butternut squash over and place back in oven for another twenty minutes.

• Meanwhile, with about 10 minutes left, place the maple syrup, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cayenne pepper in a small pan.  Turn the heat to low and cook, whisking constantly until the mixture fully incorporates.  Once completed, remove from heat and place lid on pot.  Set aside.

• Once the squash has roasted for around 40 total minutes, remove the squash from the oven.  Check for doneness by placing a fork into one of the squash segments.  If the fork goes through without resistance and the squash appears to be lightly browned, it is finished.  If it needs a bit longer, simply place back in oven, checking for doneness every 10 minutes until complete.

• Remove squash from oven.

• Roughly chop the sage leaves.

 

To serve: Place squash on platter and drizzle a bit of the maple glaze over each squash segment (the segments should just have a bit of glaze, it should not be covered in it completely). Sprinkle the chopped sage leaves over the whole platter. Sprinkle a bit of coarse sea salt over the top. Serve immediately while hot/warm.