Delicata Squash with Ricotta and Seed Brittle

Whenever I have a really delicious dish in a restaurant I challenge myself to recreate it at home. Sometimes I don’t even have to order it. I just see something on a menu that inspires me.

When we lived in New York City several years ago, we were overwhelmed by all the terrific restaurants we had around us. This was exciting and disappointing at the same time. First, the exciting part was exploring all the great food that the city had to offer. But then I had to deal with being allergic to garlic and the challenges that creates for me eating out. We found that if we frequented places that were open to accommodate me it worked but then we were spending a lot of money in some pretty high end places. So we came up with an idea to study the menus of places that we wanted to go and decide what we would have if we went. We then made a shopping list to recreate those dishes at home. Not having the actual recipes was challenging but gave us opportunity for creativity. We had so much fun doing this with all the great markets to get super ingredients in the city. Even if we spent more than our normal grocery budget on the meal, it was still less expensive than eating in the restaurant and we had more fun cooking it together.

This dish is one of the appetizers that I saw on a menu in Chelsea and ordered one time. This is my recreation of this fantastic fall delight!

Delicata Squash with Ricotta and Seed Brittle

A fantastic fall appetizer full of warm spices, creamy ricotta and crunchy sweet brittle. It's pretty too! The leftover brittle is good as a snack or on top of ice cream. If you're not up for making the brittle buy some candied pecans to use!

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 40 minutes mins

Course Appetizer

Cuisine American

Servings 4

Ingredients

  

• 1-2 delicata squash depending on size
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• ⅛ tsp smoked paprika
• ¼ tsp salt and black pepper
• pinch cayenne pepper to taste
• 1 cup ricotta cheese
• 1 tbsp chopped herbs, basil, rosemary or sage

For Brittle

• 2 cups roasted sunflower seeds, pepitas or walnuts I used a combination of all 3.
• ¼ cup water
• 1 cup sugar
• ¼ cup honey
• 1½ tbsp butter
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• ½ tsp baking soda

Instructions

 

Make the Brittle

• Prepare a small rimmed sheet pan with non stick spray or butter.
• Add water, sugar, honey and butter to a small saucepan and bring to a slow boil. If using a candy thermometer it should be at 300 °F and continue to stir with a wooden spoon for about 10 minutes or until mixture starts to look caramel.
• Add the salt and baking soda. Stir well. The caramel will puff so be careful.
• Working quickly and carefully stir in the seeds and spread evenly into the sheet pan. Set aside to cool completely.

Prepare the Squash

• Prepare squash by first cutting off the stem as close to the gourd as possible. Place it upright and cut it in half lengthwise. Use a spoon to clean out all of the seeds and membrane. See the video of butternut squash for details, same technique. Cut each half into ½ inch thick half moons.
• In a zip top bag, add the olive oil, paprika, cayenne and salt and pepper. Shake until blended then add the squash. Move the squash around the bag until it is coated with the mixture. At this point, you can set it all aside until 20 minutes before ready to serve.
• Preheat oven to 350 °F. Arrange squash on a small sheet pan and roast for 20 minutes or until golden brown and tender.
• Remove from pan and place on a serving dish. Randomly top with small spoons of ricotta cheese then sprinkle with crumbled seed brittle and fresh herbs. Another addition is a small drizzle of good thick balsamic. It's the bow on top!

Keyword delicata squash, fall appetizer, ricotta, seed brittle