Squash my heart and hope to pie

A squash-based soufflé.

It requires:

Steamed squash, a little cream to add to a beaten egg, a couple of anchovy fillets, some Taleggio cheese, some grated parmesan cheese, a thinly sliced red onion, some herbs (I used sage leaves), a little sugar to caramelise the onion.

use a potato masher to squeeze and make a purée of the cooked squash

 pass the squash through a sieve to get rid of as much liquid as possible.

make life easy for yourself and use a mandoline to slice the onion into gossamer thin slices …

here are the lovely onions and, nesting among them, are the anchovy fillets.  Cook gently for a few minutes in some olive oil …

add a spoonful of sugar to caramelise the onions … salt and pepper too.

add the squash to the onions …

 mix and cook for a couple of minutes … taste and add more salt and pepper if required … Switch off heat and allow to cool.

TIME TO ASSEMBLE

Here are the taleggio cheese, grated parmesan cheese, the squash and the onions mixed together in the glass bowl, a couple of sage leaves, a beaten egg to which you can add as little or as much cream as you like (I’d say a good tablespoonful).

mix the egg and cream mixture into the squash and onions (I must say the colour combination is a little disappointing … some of the lovely orange of the squash gets lost in the melée.  Maybe next time I won’t mix the squash and the onions, but layer them instead).

Fill the mini-casserole half way with the onion and squash.  Add a layer of Taleggio cheese and a few torn sage leaves

Add another layer of the squash and onion mix until it reaches almost to the top of the mini-casserole.  Get a biscuit cutter that is heart shaped …

Sprinkle the grated parmesan cheese into the heart … remove the biscuit cutter and time to bake!

I made two of these soufflés … couldn’t resist covering them with their cute little lid and baked them in the oven at 180° centigrade for half an hour.

End result … the parmesan heart swelled and sort of took over … so maybe next time I would use a smaller biscuit cutter ….

It doesn’t look particularly appealing … but it did taste jolly nice and it is, too, vegetarian friendly.  These little casseroles with lids are great if you want to surprise your loved one … off comes the lid and a big heart welcomes him or her.