Summer squash pesto
By best guesses, I’m around the halfway point of this experience, depending on which start date (the accident itself or the installation of wires) and end date (the wires coming off, the completion of delayed dental work, or the return of solid food) you’re working from. Neither adventure nor ordeal feels like the right descriptor at the moment, another sign of a halfway point. Anything that requires endurance — marathons, academic years, weight loss regimens, “The English Patient” — has a midway plateau or rut, depending on how you look at it, that one just has to learn how to work through. It’s not the worst of it, but not the best of it, either. On my plateau, I’ve got the hang of this blender thing, but that means it’s harder to keep it interesting. And making it interesting is the only thing that keeps me eating.
Interesting by way of indulgence is one path (hence all the milkshakes). So yesterday, when I stopped at the Yuno’s Farm stand in Union Square, I couldn’t resist this beautiful avocado squash (also known as Korean squash) that is apparently their specialty:
I had no idea what it was, and my indulgence was that thing chewing people do every day: buying food carelessly or care-freely, and figuring out what to do with it later.
Even though protein and fat continue to elude me, last night I just couldn’t bear the thought of blending any of the obvious high protein complements to summer squash — say, grilled salmon or steak (it helped that I had no such protein at my disposal). So what I blended instead was a pesto of sorts, earning my elusive nutrients from nuts and cheese.
- 1 avocado squash (or other kind of summer squash), diced
- 1 small onion, finely chopped
- 1 clove of garlic, minced
- 1 garlic scape, finely chopped
- a sprig of fresh rosemary, finely chopped
- a few tbsp olive oil
- 1/4 cup walnut pieces, toasted
- 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- liquid thinner of your choice (e.g., milk, rice milk, chicken or veg broth)
- salt to taste
In olive oil, saute the onion, garlic, and garlic scape until soft, then add the rosemary and saute for just a minute before adding the squash and sauteeing for a few minutes until it’s fork tender.
Transfer the squash mixture to the blender and add another good dash of olive oil, plus the walnuts and cheese. Run the blender until the mixture is just smooth enough; now it’s in good shape to work as a pesto for others.
To make it straw ready, add some liquid to thin it out and blend a bit more, making sure that the walnuts have been completely broken down. Be conservative with the additional liquid, as squash has plenty of water on its own.
Avocado squash is named for its shape, but it also has a creaminess to it and the pesto turned out to be a nice, light avocado color.
I do feel uncomfortable calling the final product pesto, because, as always, it had to be very smooth and thin just so I could suck it down. This version is still a good cream sauce for pasta — Dan voluntarily had it for lunch today atop cappellini, although he thought it needed more cheese. At least it worked, enough to be interesting.
