Holy spicy butternut squash

I grew up Catholic and even though I haven't been to church since 1996, I still get little guilt pangs if I eat meat on Fridays during Lent. So most of the time I just try to come up with meatless options for the six weeks of Lent.

Most years we stick with a few standbys - grilled cheese sandwiches, cheese pizza with vegetable toppings, cheese tortellini with marinara sauce. But since Resolution No. 6 is to try some new ingredients this year, I decided to cook up some winter squashes that are hardy enough to be a main course.

I've eaten butternut squash before, but I've never made it at home. And I've never had spaghetti squash before. I visited Food Network's Web site and found piles of recipes for both. For the spaghetti squash, I had to cut it lengthwise down the middle, no easy task, and then cooked it in the oven with a bit of water to help steam it for an hour. After it is cooked, the flesh of the squash pulls away and is stringy like spaghetti. I sauteed the cooked squash on the stovetop with a bit of butter, herbs and parmesan cheese.

The butternut squash recipe incorporates the squash, apples, leeks and a whole pile of toasted spices. The veggies cooked up for while and then simmered with chicken broth and the spice mix. The mix included fennel seeds, coriander seeds, peppercorns, red pepper flakes, chili powder and cinnamon. But I didn't really measure out the spices so when I blended all the cooked ingredients into the smooth soup, it turned out to be a lot on the spicy side. With the amount of peppercorns and red pepper flakes int he mix, there was lots in every spoonful. It turned out to be a bit too spicy for me, but tomorrow I have plans to mix in some more leeks and squash to mellow it out a bit.

So spaghetti squash marks the final of the five ingredients (others were celery root, quinoa, swiss chard and hoisin sauce) I said I would use and it's only February. I think I'll continue to try out new ones as the year goes on, and I am especially looking forward to picking up new vegetables and items at the farmers market when it starts next summer.

Photos by Melissa Flores

The seeds are scraped out of roasted spaghetti squash.

The squash is sauteed with a little bit of butter and herbs.