In celebration of the official beginning of fall, I made my very first pot of butternut squash soup. Although this is my favorite season of the year, it still felt a little odd and premature to be pureeing squash. Wasn’t it just yesterday that I was gorging on watermelon and chasing children with a bottle of sun screen? But this morning it was 47 degrees! So out came the pea coat, the cardi, and the stock pot.
In preparation for the transition to soup season I had make a pot of chicken broth this weekend. Now, I know this might sound all foodie and pretentious, “You don’t make your own chicken broth? What’s wrong with you!” But it really is super easy to make a batch every now and then and it makes your homemade soup so much better than using the stuff off the shelf.
(But if you do use the stuff from the store I’ll still respect you in the morning.)
On Sunday afternoon I just sauteed a chopped yellow onion in some olive oil until it was softened (this step you can skip but it really does add extra flavor) and then added one whole chicken, a bay leaf, a tsp of black peppercorns, a head of garlic cut in half, one roughly chopped carrot, one roughly chopped celery stalk, salt, and a gallon of water. Brought it all to a boil, then lowered the heat and let it simmer for 4 hours until it went from clear to deep yellow in color. Strained it and then let it cool to room temperature (if you put it in the fridge for later it has to be cool before you cover). The batch was enough for plenty of soup plus risotto for dinner and I still had enough leftover to freeze some for future use. All you need is four hours on the stove and it makes itself.
Back to the butternut squash soup. There are so many versions of this classic soup but I like to add chopped apple to mine. I also like to swirl in creme fraiche at the end or grate gruyere on the top and sprinkle crisped pancetta, and I love it with sage, autumn’s herbal mascot.
It’s autumn in a bowl. And the next day I ladled some leftover soup onto alphabet pasta (side note: it’s really hard to find alphabet pasta. Why isn’t every pasta brand making alphabet pasta? Are stores just not carrying it? I’d buy lots!),served it to Conor for dinner and he fell in love. So thank you, fall.
Recipe for Butternut Squash Soup
Ingredients
-a 4 oz package of diced pancetta
-1 tbsp olive oil
-4 cloves of garlic, minced
-6-8 sage leaves, finely chopped
-1 medium yellow onion, chopped
-1 butternut squash halved, peeled, seeds removed, and chopped into 1 inch pieces
-1 apple, peeled, cored, and chopped into 1 inch pieces
-5 cups of chicken broth
*optional creme fraiche, gruyere
Directions
-Cook pancetta in the pan in a medium dutch oven or stock pot over medium heat until crisp.
-Cook pancetta in the pan in a medium dutch oven or stock pot over medium heat until crisp.
-Remove crisped pancetta with a slotted spoon to a paper towel and save for later. Add olive oil to drippings in the pan and then the garlic, sage and onion. Saute until onions and garlic are golden.
-Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Lower heat to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes, until squash is soft.
-Turn off the heat and either puree the soup in batches in a blender (very carefully! don’t splatter and burn yourself), or with an immersion blender in the pot.
-Serve pureed soup sprinkled with crisp pancetta and topped with grated gruyere or a dollop of creme fraiche.
Enjoy!
