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Roasting a Whole Winter Squash
Passive Cooking at its best.
I was speaking with another chef, and we came up with a cooking style we described as Passive Cooking. My definition, if it needs one, is cooking with the least effort, saving the chef’s time.
I feel that historically, humans could not have spent as much time in the kitchen as we do now. They had to scrub laundry by hand and walk to get places. We are lucky to live in a world where many things are easy and time-saving.
But we are still busy, and we can take advantage of cooking methods that take the work out of the job.
While I write this, I can do a load of laundry and cook a butternut squash without looking at either.
Winter squash grows through the summer, and it stores well because of its tough skin. Commercial storage has made squash available year-round, because of controlled refrigeration conditions, but when you eat food in season, you can enjoy the flavor at its peak.
There are many types of winter squash, each with their attributes, from stringy spaghetti squash to sweet and dry butternut. Winter squash can be cross-pollinated with other squash species, so it has been easy for plant breeders to optimize the best plant and fruit characteristics that farmers and eaters prefer.
