Guiffrida’s dish includes grilled butternut
squash carpaccio with baby arugula
and toasted pine nuts, butternut squash
cappuccino with nutmeg foam, and
butternut squash and Parmesan risotto.
He first prepared the dish for a vegetarian
diner at the restaurant. “I thought it would
be fun to prepare the butternut three ways,
providing different textures and flavors,” he
says. “Using different applications elevates
the use of common ingredients to give a
wow factor to the dining experience.”
Kabocha is hard, has knobby-looking skin,
is shaped like a squatty pumpkin, has a
dull finish and deep-green skin with some
celadon-to-white stripes, and is an intense
yellow-orange on the inside. In many respects,
it is similar to the buttercup squash, but
without the characteristic cup on the blossom
end. It has an exceptional naturally sweet
flavor, even sweeter than butternut squash.
It is similar in texture and flavor to a pumpkin
and a sweet potato combined. Some kabocha
can taste like russet potatoes.
amount of those ingredients to a minimum
so the full flavor of the squash can be tasted.
“I call this a pie, because it has a dense
pie quality with less air than a traditional
cheesecake,” she says. “I also use a toasted
pumpkin-seed crust that gives the pie a lot
of flavor and has the exact consistency of
a graham cracker crust. As a result, I use a
lot less spice seasoning than a traditional
pumpkin cheesecake, since I really like to
taste the sweetness of the kabocha together
with the savory seed crust.”
Since Guiffrida pays about $1.29 per squash,
he says the dish is profitable because he only
uses half a squash per order for the entire
recipe. The entrée menus for $26, with 7%
food cost. “It takes only 15-20 minutes to
make all three items from start to finish, so
the dish is easy to prepare, too,” he says.
“When I first menued the dessert, my guests
questioned my thinking and were hesitant
to try it when they were told about the
combination of the squash, mascarpone and
cream cheese,” Pittorino says. “They thought
the combination of ingredients would make
the dessert too heavy and filling. But the
dessert actually has a light and airy texture.”
To keep getting that wow factor, Guiffrida will
make changes to the entrée. For example,
one night he removed the cappuccino and
added a butternut croquette. “A lot of times,
people see squash on the menu and shy
away from it because they have it at home,”
he says. “But in using the butternut, people
are familiar with the squash, so they are
comfortable with that. Also, the different
presentations make people curious and
adventurous when ordering the dish.”
Pittorino recommends baking the halved
and deseeded kabocha for 45 minutes to
an hour at 350ºF, or until fork-tender and
mashable, then seasoning with olive oil
and salt and pepper before mixing with the
other pie ingredients. “Baking the squash
first will break down the squash and
make it easier to mix. If the squash is not
mashable, you’ll get a gritty pie.”
Oftentimes, a dessert made with squash—
such as a pumpkin cheesecake or a squash
tart—has an abundance of cinnamon, clove
and nutmeg that overwhelms the taste of the
squash. But Pittorino purposely keeps the
Rob Benes is a freelance writer and former
editor of Chef and Chef Educator Today.
He specializes in foodservice and is based
in Chicago.
SWEET SQUASH ENDING
At Cuvee Bistro & Bar, Pittorino uses
squash in her sweet-and-savory
presentation of kabocha squash cheese pie
with toasted pumpkin-seed crust ($8/25%
food cost). “I like kabocha, because while
many squashes are fibrous in texture, it has
a fluffy texture after being baked, perfect
for use in desserts,” she says.
Brasel’s recipe is simple in ingredients and form but time-consuming, with multiple steps. He points to the importance of blanching the pumpkin before roasting to scale back its starchy content (think french-fries preparation).
Executive chef Sean Brasel of Meat
Market, Miami Beach, Fla., prepares a
pumpkin cobbler side ($8/23% food
cost).;“I;love;the;flavor;of;pumpkin;and
how it can add such an interesting
element to so many different dishes,”
he says. “I also love the way it surprises
people, because they tend to only think
of it around Thanksgiving.”
ALTERNATIVE SIDE
While the standard whipped-squash
side dish is a simple preparation,
“I also avoid using cinnamon, to
concentrate;on;the;pumpkin;flavor;instead
of masking it so that it wouldn’t taste
like the fall,” he says. “Rather, I want the
cobbler to be sweet and spicy, so I add
brandy,;thyme,;chili;flakes,;white;onion
and chicken stock to make a syrup.”
