Kabocha squash
Kabocha is the squash that comes after the thin-skinned early ones — dense, dry, and sweeter than butternut. It's picked now and actually improves after a few weeks on the counter, which makes it the first thing in the year you can buy in October and cook in November.
How to choose it
- Dark green, dull rather than shiny — shine means it was picked early
- Heavy enough to surprise you
- A dry, corky stem
- A pale orange patch on one side is fine; that's where it sat on the ground
- No soft spots anywhere
Buy this much: 1 large, about 3 lbs. Half a squash goes to each kabocha dish — the weekend fish, the sausage pan, the orzo salad — so one covers two of them. It keeps for months if you want all three.
Sold by the pound. Usually the cheapest squash per serving in the store, because almost none of it is water.
During the week
- Roasted in wedges under seared fish and yogurt
- On one pan with sausages and peppers
- Under seared rockfish and brown butter
- Roasted in cubes and folded into the orzo salad
- Cold from the fridge, with salt and a squeeze of lemon
On a weekend
Roasted in wedges, under the seared rockfish and brown butter.
One thing worth learning
Kabocha is drier than other squash, which is why it roasts so well: there's less water to steam off before the sugars can brown. It's also why it can taste chalky if undercooked. Roast it until a knife slides in with no resistance at all, then give it five more minutes.