Squash

This is a good old Italian recipe that makes an appearance on our menu every once in a while. It’s brimmin’ with Old World flavors and looks damn good on the plate. It’ll keep your main courses from gettin’ boring.

This one-skillet dinner is loaded with flavor and easy to prepare. Serve over some steamin’ Perfect Rice or your favorite macaroni. You can also substitute boneless, skinless chicken thighs for some real concentrated chicken flavor—love that dark meat!

Cook out as much liquid as you can by uncovering and stirring often. A little browning doesn’t hurt. You know, I don’t even like squash, but this sounds yummy to me!

When Beth first made this very simple zucchini dish (which she created for our parents), Daddy asked, “Honey, how’d you learn to cook?” I thought that was funny because I think what he was really wondering was how she’d learned to cook something that Mama didn’t make at home!

Suzanne Stack regularly updates and modifies her menus to take advantage of the rich, vibrant flavors the time of year offers. The butternut squash for this dish is grown at Blue Heron Farm, just down the road from the 1903 farmhouse she has converted to one of the Finger Lakes’ most charming restaurants.

We remember falling in love with a photograph of petits farcis in an old issue of Cuisine et Vins de France. We’re sure that most chefs our age who had dreamed of cooking professionally since childhood feel the same when they open a vintage copy of Cuisine et Vins de France, or of Georges Blanc’s De la Vigne à l’Assiette. There is no greater food era than when Michel Guérard, Bernard Loiseau, Paul Bocuse, Alain Chapel, Georges Blanc, and Roger Vergé were at the top. Petits farcis are vegetables stuffed with sausage mix, then baked and eaten lukewarm. We make them in the summer when the growers show up with pattypan squashes. What else are you supposed to do with those little squashes other than admire them? The stuffed vegetables are awesome with a mâche salad and partner perfectly with a nice rosé or pastis. Get the smallest vegetables you can find, about the size of a golf ball.

I love pumpkin pie so much that I've requested it as my birthday "cake" every year since I was about thirteen. I happen to have been born in October, so that helps my choice make some sense. I am also fortunate enough to be married to Dave, whom I refer to as a pie guru. The point is, I've eaten a lot of pumpkin pie, so I know what I'm talking about when I say that this is the best pumpkin pie ever. If someone feels otherwise, I am ready for a throwdown, because I can guarantee that their version does not have a grainy cornmeal crust and salty, crunchy pumpkin seeds on top. And without those elements, there's just no match.

This dish flips conventional Southern cookery on its head. Rather than cooking greens nito submission, they’re quickly brined to soften their texture and mellow their bitterness, then married with the sweet, salty, and creamy elements of a composed salad.

The basic method of making risotto will never change; you cook the rice slowly and add broth gradually, so the starchy inside of the rice kernel expands as the outside layer dissolves into creaminess. Risotto feeds the soul and can take a whole range of flavors. I like the pumpkin risotto here, but try a shrimp risotto using shellfish broth, adding a pound of peeled shrimp at the last minute and letting them cook no more than 5 minutes. Or how about a green risotto, with a bunch of watercress or a few handfuls of spinach, chopped fine? Or a mushroom risotto with a pound of sliced fresh mushrooms added to the dried porcini mushrooms. Keep in mind that there's a lot of bad risotto out there, usually because folks overcook it or add too much wine. But if you do have some white wine open, add a splash or two to the rice and onions, just before you ladle in the broth. It gives yet another dimension of flavor.

This salad is a wonderful way to venture into the world of raw squash. Using the truffle version of pecorino isn’t absolutely critical, but its earthiness is a fantastic counterpoint to the brighter flavors of squash and lemon juice. For best results, use the smallest, firmest, freshest squash you can find— they’re easier to grate and taste better than the more mature ones. And because this salad is so simple (almost minimalist), the quality of your olive oil really counts.

Every time I make this gratin I get the same response: “This is so good!” Honestly, though, when you combine potatoes and squash with cream, sage, and cheese, how could it not be amazing? This gratin is especially well suited for dinner parties or any other time you need a hearty, make-ahead side dish. It scales up easily (just increase the ingredients and baking dishes accordingly), and it reheats wonderfully.

This autumnal salad is a kaleidoscope of shapes and colors, thanks to the scalloped half-moons of squash, wispy leaves of baby arugula, and shiny red jewels of pomegranate seeds. It’s as visually pleasing as it is delicious. Boasting both tender greens and roasted potatoes, this dish is sort of a half salad, half starchy side dish. As such, you can serve it alone as an entrée or in smaller portions as an accompaniment. You can roast the potatoes and squash and make the dressing well ahead of time, then assemble at the last minute.

Our customers are an incredibly diverse group of people, but there’s one thing that unites them: their love for our latkes. We used to make them only for Jewish holidays, but now they’re a staple in our deli for Jews and non-Jews alike. Our version includes butternut squash and fresh herbs, which give the latkes a freshness that most other kinds lack. This recipe employs a trick that we use extensively in our commercial kitchen: we brown the latkes on the stove top and finish the cooking in the oven. It not only minimizes the time you spend standing over a hot pan but also reduces the amount of oil needed and frees up the stove top for whatever else you might want to make. I love these as a first course or a light supper, especially when paired with smoked salmon or trout. Applesauce and sour cream are great, too.

Farro is an ancient grain that, despite its popularity in central Italy, was once impossible to find in the United States. With rising demand for it, more and more domestic growers are starting to cultivate it, including Eatwell Farm in Northern California and Bluebird Grain Farms in Oregon. This hearty fall salad works well as a vegan entrée or a side dish, or even warmed and served as a Thanksgiving stuffing. I like to add diced or pulled roasted turkey to turn this into an entrée salad. Small cubes of good-quality Pecorino Romano are also a nice addition and give the dish added richness and umami.

A spicy vegetable side dish from Chef Jon Mortimer, a 2007 Workshop participant, inspired this more substantial stew. By adding more summer vegetables, such as chayote and corn, Brian elevated Chef Mortimer’s dish to entrée status. Prepared with vegetable stock, it is suitable for vegetarians.

Adapted from a recipe from chef Gary Danko, who participated in the 1994 Workshop, this gratin relies on bread crumbs sprinkled between the vegetable layers to absorb the savory juices. After the gratin cools and settles, you can slice it like a cake and the layers will hold together. All the flavors that suggest a Provençal summer are gathered here—garlic and basil, tomato, fennel, and thyme. Serve the gratin with roast or grilled lamb or a store-bought spit-roasted chicken. Because it tastes best warm or at room temperature, you can bake it before dinner guests arrive.

It takes a little more attention to grill a pizza than to bake one, but the smoky touch of the grill is appealing—the next best thing to baking in a wood-fired oven. When Brian teaches pizza classes at the winery in summer, he demonstrates the grilling technique because so few people have a wood oven at home. The trick is to start the pizza crust in a hot zone to set it, and then flip it and move it to a cooler zone to add the topping and finish cooking. This topping is vegetarian, but you could add some crumbled sausage or pancetta, if you like.

By adding a puff pastry top, Chef Albert Bouchard transforms an easy autumn vegetable soup into a first course suitable for company. The puff pastry seals in all the aromas until diners breach the flaky caps with their spoons. Note that you will need individual ovenproof soup crocks, similar to the type used for French onion soup. The diameter on top should be no more than 5 inches to have the proper ratio of soup to pastry. Chef Bouchard attended the 2006 Workshop.

Chef Scott Neuman is a Latin cooking enthusiast who transformed the zucchini and corn in Dolores’s garden into a lively chile-spiked soup during the 2009 Workshop. This recipe is an adaptation that goes well with Cakebread Cellars Chardonnay. The soup is light and bright, a distillation of early summer flavors and a delightful first course in warm weather.

This modern, savory interpretation of panna cotta comes from Chef Debbie Gold, who participated in the 2000 Workshop. It has the silky, quivery texture of a traditional dessert panna cotta, with an appetizing butterscotch color. For an autumn first course, serve the custard with crisp toasts and a tart salad for contrast. Note that the panna cotta must be chilled for at least four hours before serving.