Jessica Gath is at home with the hungry.

Coconut Rum Cake

Recipe by Maggie Ruggiero, from Gourmet September 2007

Christo often asks for a coconut cake for his birthday. This is the best one we found.

It improves a little with age, so make it a few hours or a day ahead of time if you can.

Ingredients

Makes 8 servings

For cake:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 large eggs plus 3 large yolks

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, melted and cooled (miyokos vegan butter works well if you're rolling cow's-milk-free)

3/4 cup well-stirred sweetened cream of coconut such as Coco López

For coconut slivers:

1 medium coconut

2 teaspoons confectioners sugar

For icing:

3 tablespoons cream cheese, softened (vegan cc works fine)

3 tablespoons well-stirred sweetened cream of coconut

1 tablespoon dark rum

3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 to 3 tablespoons heavy cream (more coco cream also works)

1/2 cup confectioners sugar

Equipment: a 9-inch round cake pan (2 inches deep); an adjustable-blade slicer

Make cake:

Step 1

Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle. Lightly butter cake pan and line bottom with a round of parchment paper. Lightly butter parchment, then flour pan.

Step 2

Whisk together flour (1 1/4 cups), baking powder, and salt.

Step 3

Whisk together whole eggs and yolks, sugar, and vanilla in a large bowl. Gradually whisk in flour mixture until combined, then whisk in butter until just combined. Pour into cake pan and rap pan on counter to expel air bubbles.

Step 4

Bake until golden brown and cake starts to pull away from side of pan, about 45 minutes. Cool in pan on a rack 10 minutes. (Leave oven on.) Invert cake onto rack (discard parchment) and cool 10 minutes more. Generously brush top and side of warm cake with cream of coconut, allowing it to soak in before brushing on more. Cool completely.

Make coconut slivers as cake cools:

Step 5

Pierce softest eye of coconut with a small screwdriver, then drain and discard liquid. Bake coconut in a shallow baking pan 15 minutes. (Leave oven on.) Break shell with a hammer, then pry flesh from shell with screwdriver.

Step 6

Thinly shave enough coconut with slicer to measure 2 cups and toss with confectioners sugar, then spread in 1 layer on a baking sheet. Bake until just dry but not golden (some tips may color), 5 to 10 minutes. (Shave and bake remaining coconut with more confectioners sugar to serve on the side, or freeze for another use.) Cool coconut completely. (It will crisp as it cools.)

Make icing:

Step 7

Beat together cream cheese, cream of coconut, rum, vanilla, and 2 tablespoons cream with an electric mixer until smooth, then beat in confectioners sugar. Icing should be smooth and slightly runny; stir in remaining tablespoon cream if necessary.

Step 8

Smooth icing over top of cooled cake, allowing some to drip over side, then top with coconut slivers.

Cooks' notes:

Cake can be baked 1 day ahead and soaked with cream of coconut, then kept in an airtight container at room temperature.

Cake can be iced 2 hours ahead.

Coconut slivers can be made 1 day ahead and kept in an airtight container at room temperature.

Tiramisu

If you ever want to make me a birthday cake, please make this recipe. If you ever want to delight me maximally, please make this recipe. I've tried many versions. This one from Epicurious is still my favorite.

Tiramisu improves with a little age, so make it a day (or two) ahead of time if you can. It's a light, creamy, delicious, soggy dream in a dish and I love it!

Makes 8-10 servings

Ingredients

6 large egg yolks, room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

16 ounces mascarpone cheese

4 large egg whites

2 ounces Kahlúa or dark rum

12 to 14 (4-inch) ladyfingers

1 1/2 cups brewed espresso (or 3/4 cup American coffee and 3/4 cup espresso), room temperature

Unsweetened cocoa powder, for garnish

Step 1

1. In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks with half the sugar until pale and doubled in volume (the mixture will maintain a "ribbon" when folded over itself), 3 to 5 minutes. Add the mascarpone in 2 or 3 additions, whisking well to combine. Add the liquor, if using, and whisk to combine.

Step 2

2. In a clean bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whip the egg whites and remaining sugar to soft peaks. Fold the egg whites into the mascarpone mixture in two or three additions.

Step 3

3. In a roughly 6-by-9-inch casserole or plate with a border, spread about one third of the mascarpone cream into an even layer. Soak each individual cookie in the coffee and arrange them very tightly on top until the cream is completely covered. Spoon the remaining cream over the cookies, spreading it into an even layer.

Step 4

4. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours or up to 2 days to set the cream. Just before serving, dust the top with cocoa powder.

Italian Cooking at Home with The Culinary Institute of America

Baked Peppers Stuffed with Tomatoes from Tender by Nigel Slater

It's pepper season!

Anyone else feel like peppers are in-season for a really, really long time?

With a drawer full of peppers from 3 weeks of my CSA and some dinner guests coming, I discovered this beautiful, simple, and utterly satisfying recipe in Tender. The above image is of my lunch the next day. They were still beautiful and still so good.

Disclaimer: I totally forgot about the blitzed basil sauce (below) in my haste to get my peppers on the table and they were still great. I served them over garlicky mashed potatoes with roasted delicata squash halves and stir-fried beet greens. We had baked, stuffed apples for dessert. Fall was in the air!

Ingredients: (enough for 4)

large peppers –– 4

small or cherry tomatoes –– 12 to 16

olive oil

basil leaves –– a couple of handfuls

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Cut the peppers in half lengthwise and discard the seeds and white core. Put the halved peppers, cut side up, in a roasting pan or baking dish. Lightly salt and pepper their insides. Cut the tomatoes into halves or quarters, depending on their size, and divide between the peppers. Season with salt and black pepper. Pour a little olive oil into each pepper and bake until the tomatoes and peppers are lusciously soft, about 45 minutes to an hour.

Butter and Rosemary Sauce a.k.a. [mock] Pasta "with a Touch of the Roast"

Feeling more ambitious about finding a recipe than making one I paged through Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking wherein I found this gem.

Marcella writes, "The tastiest part of an Italian meat roast is what is left over: the rosemary-saturated garlicky juices, the bits of brown that have fallen off the meat. They usually end up tossed with pasta, which is then known as la pasta col tocco d'arrosto, "with a touch of the roast." If you don't have leftovers to fall back on, you can make a mock and meatless "touch of the roast" sauce as in the quick recipe here in which the presence of rosemary and garlic summons up all the fragrance of the original.

Ingredients

3-4 garlic cloves

6 tablespoons butter, cut up (I used Miyokos vegan butter)

3 sprigs of fresh rosemary (mine was dried, whole sprigs)

1 bouillon beef cube, crushed (I used 1 teaspoon vegetable Better Than Bouillon)

1/3 cup freshly-grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese plus additional cheese at the table

1 pound pasta (she recommends homemade tonnarelli, fettuccine or spaghetti... I used dried penne and am still thinking how good it all was)

Instructions

1. Mash the garlic cloves with the back of a knife handle, crushing them just enough to split and loosen the peel, which you will discard. Put the garlic, butter, and rosemary in a small saucepan and turn on the heat to medium. Cook, stirring frequently, for 4 to 5 minutes.

2. Add the crushed bouillon cube or teaspoon of Better Than Bouillon. Cook and stir until the bouillon has completely dissolved.

3. Pour the sauce through a fine wire strainer over cooked, drained pasta. Toss thoroughly to coat the pasta well. Add the grated Parmesan and toss once more. Serve at once with grated cheese on the side.

Magnifico!

Cranberry Sauce

I am on an autumnal roll, y’all! 

When I was a grocer I would hand out this recipe to shoppers ALL THE TIME. The world is full of cranberry sauce lovers who could use a recipe. I’ve got youz. 

This recipe is simple enough to prepare with your favorite small person.

Ingredients

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

12 oz (3 cups) cranberries (fresh or frozen, tiny stems removed)

1/2 teaspoon orange zest

Instructions

Bring water and sugar to a boil. Add cranberries. Simmer 10-12 minutes (til cranberries just pop). Stir in orange zest. Cool then serve.

Sweet Potato Pancakes

There is finally a little nip in the air. My pantry is filling with roots. My house smells like apples. On a whim I mashed some baked sweet potato into my usual pancake recipe* on Saturday and I can't stop thinking about it. If you want to do the same, here's how:

Ingredients

3 eggs, yolks separated from whites

1-1.5 cups cooked sweet potato

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 2/3 cups buttermilk (or milk curdled with lemon or lime juice)

3 tablespoons butter, softened

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg

1 tablespoon sugar (I used coconut sugar to great effect here)

Instructions

If souring your own milk with citrus, add lemon/lime juice to milk so it has time to curdle up. In a large bowl mash the egg yolks with the sweet potato until smooth. Add the butter, buttermilk (or the milk you just soured), flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg (freshly grated is tastiest). Mix until smooth.

Have your pan or griddle heating. If you drip a little water on it and the bubbles skitter around the heat is just right.

Add the sugar to the egg whites and whip them until stiff. Fold stiff egg whites gently into the rest of the batter.

Ladle batter onto griddle. Flip when bubbles form and pop in the center of the pancake. Cook til golden brown on each side.

Enjoy with butter and maple syrup (if you're a pancake purist like me) or with apple butter, peanut butter, cream, or whatever strikes your pancake fancy.

*If you're looking for my "usual pancake recipe" it's right here.

Tis the season.

I found this recipe in the October 1991 issue of Gourmet. I haven't found one I like better.

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 stick (1/2 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into bits

1 teaspoon freshly-grated orange zest

3/4 cup fresh orange juice

1 large egg

1 cup coarsely-chopped cranberries

1/3 cup chopped walnuts

Instructions

Garlic Lime Sauce for Vietnamese Bún

The image above is kind of a tease. This recipe is for the sauce that gets poured on Vietnamese Bún––one of my very favorite dishes––not for the dish itself. That can come later.

Ingredients

1/4 cup sugar (we've been using coconut sugar)

1/4 cup hot water

1 red serrano chile

2 cloves garlic, smashed

1/3 cup lime juice

1/4 cup fish sauce

Instructions

Combine sugar and hot water in a jar with a tightly-fitting cover, stirring to dissolve the sugar. I like to keep the garlic and the chile into a rather large pieces so they perfume the sauce but I don't consume them––they're each a little too much for me in their own way). Add the chile and garlic pieces to the jar with the lemon juice and fish sauce.

Mmmmm.....

Vegan Sour Cream

(many thanks to lovingitvegan.com for this gem!)

Ingredients 1 cup (150g) raw cashews 1/3 cup (80ml) water 1 tablespoon lemon juice (freshly squeezed) 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Instructions Add all ingredients to the blender and blend until very smooth.

Enjoy wherever sour cream is needed.

Great with chopped chives on top!

Note: You don’t have to soak the cashews but if you know your blender is likely to have a hard time, then you can soak them in boiling water for 15 minutes just to soften them slightly so they’re easier to blend.

(derived from Alison Adams / lovingitvegan.com)

Tasha turned me on to this idea and it's made regular appearances ever since. It's a damn, fine dish.

Ingredients For the Vegan Mushroom Stroganoff:

3 tablespoon (45g) vegan butter or olive oil 1 medium onion (white, yellow or brown, finely chopped) 1 tablespoon crushed/chopped garlic 5 cups (18oz/500g) cremini/white/portabello mushrooms (sliced) 3 tablespoon all purpose flour 1 cups (240ml) vegetable stock 1 cup (240ml) dry, white wine 1 tablespoon dijon mustard 1 tablespoon soy sauce 1 cup (240ml) vegan sour cream* (don't be scared-it's quick) salt and pepper (to taste) 16 ounces pappardelle or wide egg noodles (dry weight) Chopped chives (for serving)

Instructions

Prepare all of your ingredients including vegan sour cream.

Melt the vegan butter or heat oil in a pot. Add the chopped onions and sauté until the onions are translucent.

[While the onions sauté begin to heat the water for the noodles in a large pot.]

Once onions are translucent, add in the sliced mushrooms and garlic, stirring occasionally, and fry until the mushrooms are softened.

Add the flour to the mushrooms and onions and fry for one minute, stirring. Add in the vegetable stock and wine and stir until combined. Add the soy sauce and dijon mustard, then the full batch of vegan sour cream. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Cook the pasta/noodles according to directions on the package. Drain and reserve some of the water.

Simmer stroganoff until thickened, stirring occasionally.

Red Radishes with Scallions (a.k.a. Any Radish/Turnip with Any Onion-Thing)

(derived from The Joy of Cooking)

I’m debating whether or not to share my embarrassing radish story. It’s not cool or flattering but it may serve as a cautionary tale. For that purpose I’ll give it to you below in italics. If you want to get straight to the cooked radish recipe, ignore the italics and trust me––these radishes will do you right from your schedule to your tongue to your belly and beyond.

When I was in my twenties I attended a lovely party at a friend’s house. Said friend always served beautiful crudités including gorgeous, tiny radishes with some of their little, green tops. I sampled them. I enjoyed them very much. Said party unfortunately smelled much worse than it looked: someone seemed to be following me around passing awful gas everywhere I went. Far be it from me to judge humans for having digestive tracts, but the smell was painful. I found myself alone at last, let out a little burp, and realized THAT SMELL WAS COMING OUT OF MY MOUTH! It was the radishes. I have feared and avoided eating raw radishes ever since, which pains me as a seasonal eater, a healthy eater, and someone who regularly has a CSA share. Luckily Christo came to the rescue with this recipe. Bless him.

Ingredients

2 bunches radishes, well-scrubbed, roots and greens trimmed (I prefer to reserve the greens for another dish but they may be included with the radishes if you like)

1 tablespoon butter/vegan butter/oil

any combination of the following members of the onion family: a small bunch of scallions, spring onions or small leeks (well-washed), whites and as much of the greens as you like, cut into 1/2 inch pieces / a shallot or two finely-chopped / a small onion, finely-chopped

1/2 cup stock (we use vegetable, chicken would also be good)

salt to taste

Instructions

Cut any especially large radishes in 1/2 or quarters. 

Melt the butter or heat the oil in a large skillet. Add the onions and cook gently over medium heat until softened, 2-5 minutes. Add the radishes along with the stock. Cover the pan and simmer until the radishes are tender, 3-4 minutes. Uncover, increase the heat to medium-high, and boil rapidly to reduce the pan juices while shaking the pan back and forth a few times. Season with salt to taste.

Yup. That’s it. Enjoy!

Christo’s Sunday Soup starring Chinese/Japanese/Korean dumplings(!!!)

This soup is a remix of Christo’s Sunday Soup from 2015. This iteration is my new, favorite dinner. 

Here’s a little reminder about what makes this”Christo’s Sunday soup”, in his words, “I think the key part is that I just start throwing things into cold water and 10 minutes later it’s ready.”

Ingredients:

Fresh ginger is one of the most important ingredients for flavor

5-10 prepared Asian dumplings (jiaozi, gyoza, mandu, wontons... ) per serving. I try to choose veggie dumplings that aren’t stuffed with everything already in my veg drawer so the soup has more variety. You can always go in the other direction and choose what veg you put in the soup by what’s in your dumplings.

Pretty much any combination of the following, other ingredients:

Cabbage and/or other greens, carrots, mushrooms, mung bean sprouts, celery, summer squashes, green onions, white onions, garlic, green garlic, peppers, seaweeds, corn, baby corn, kohlrabi, salad turnips, radishes, other vegetables I may be forgetting...

Approximately 2, heaping Tablespoons of miso per large bowl – may be a single type of miso or a combination of different miso pastes

Possible Garnishes (all optional):

fried shallots (thinly slice shallots and fry in oil til golden brown and crispy)

1-2 tsp mirin + 1-2 tsp soy sauce + 1-2 tsp shaoxin rice wine per bowl

sesame oil

sriracha or other hot sauce or hot peppers or hot pepper oil

chopped cilantro and/or thai basil

thinly sliced or julienned green onions or green garlic

toasted sesame seeds

gomasio / seaweed flakes

Take a stock pot with enough room in it for the amount of soup you want to make.

Put cold water in the pot and turn on the heat. Throw in a small amount of salt – not enough to make a tasty broth – just enough to help the plants’ cell walls break down a little. You’ll make it taste good later.

Add the ginger, cabbage and whatever other vegetables you have on hand, chopped as finely or coarsely as you like. Add things you’d like to be more cooked sooner and things you’d like to be less cooked later in the process. Bring it to a boil.

Once it’s boiling add the dumplings, pushing them down a little from the surface so you will know when they’re done cooking. They should be done cooking once they float.

Put miso paste into serving bowls. For ease of eating (or for children) you may want to stir it up a bit with some broth so it’s incorporated (versus a chunk in the bottom). We usually don’t do that and I always end up with at least one super-miso mouthful.

Ladle soup into bowls. Add whatever other condiments excite you. 

In parting, Christo would like to reiterate, “I just turn on the heat and start throwing things in the water is the thing.”

Thank you, Christo. Your guest appearance is always appreciated.

Welcome to the party!

Maybe you, like me, have been told for years “All you have to do to keep herbs fresh is put them in water in your fridge!” 

Um. It never worked for me until...... drumroll.... I started putting each herb in its own, plastic-bag greenhouse! Yep. Apparently it’s that simple.

Here I am, two months into my new, guilt-free, herb-filled life! Feast your eyes on these freshies! [From top-left, clockwise]

Arugula from last Monday, February 1

Cilantro from Friday, February 5 [update: last of this cilantro was used while still fresh on 2/14 – my previous bunch kept for 3 weeks before I finished it.]

Mint from Friday, February 5 [update: mint is still going strong on 2/16]

Dill from Wednesday, February 3 [update: last of this dill was used while still fresh on 2/14]

Parsley from January 18(!). [still going strong: 2/15]

HOW

Cut an inch or so off the bottom of the stems and remove any twist-ties or elastic bands around herbs. 

Put bundle of herbs in a jar wide enough not to squeeze them with drinking water covering their cut stems (I live in Philadelphia, so I filter my tap water to make it “drinking water”).

Slip a plastic bag over the top (of which I have many kicking around that come with my CSA farmshare). Be careful not to squish the herbs while doing so.

Hold the jar in your hand, leaving the plastic bag open a bit, and swoop it straight down through the air so the bag fills up a little like a balloon. Trap the air inside and secure the “greenhouse” with an elastic band or long twist tie around the jar. This step prevents the weight of the bag from squashing tender leaves and stems.

Tomato Sauce with Porcini Mushrooms 

(a la Marcella Hazan, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking)

This recipe is for when you have at least 80 minutes of prep time. It’s not the simplest but it’s worth the effort – especially (but not only) if you serve it over handmade pappardelle. It also makes a special, richly-satisfying sauce for store-bought conchiglie (shells), penne, or ridged ziti. 

Be sure to start the porcini soaking first thing. They need at least 30 minutes plus handling time. Instructions precede the recipe below.

Dried Porcini Mushrooms (Fungi Porcini Secchi)

Marcella Hazan writes: Even when fresh porcini – wild boletus edulis mushrooms – are available, the dried version compels consideration on its own terms not as a substitute but as a separate, valid ingredient. Dehydration concentrates the musky, earthy fragrance of porcini to a degree the fresh mushrooms can never equal. In risotto, in lasagna, in sauces for pasta, in stuffings for some vegetables, the intensity of the aroma of dried porcini can be thrilling.

How to buy 

Dried porcini are usually marketed in small transparent packets, generally weighing slightly less than one ounce, one of which is sufficient for a risotto or a pasta sauce for 4-6 persons. They keep indefinitely, particularly if kept in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator, so it pays to have a supply at hand that one can turn to on the inspiration of the moment. The dried porcini with the most flavor are the ones whose color is predominantly creamy. Choose the packet containing the largest, palest pieces and – unless you have no alternative – stay away from brown-black, dark mushrooms that appear to be all crumbs or little pieces. Dried morels, chanterelles, or shiitake, while they may be very good on their own terms, do not remotely recall the flavor of porcini, and are not a satisfactory substitute.

How to prepare for cooking – Before you can cook dried mushrooms, they must be reconstituted according to the following procedure:

For 3/4 to 1 ounce dried porcini: 2 cups barely warm water. Soak the mushrooms in the water for at least 30 minutes.

Lift out the mushrooms by hand, squeezing as much water as possible out of them, letting it flow back into the container in which they had been soaking. Rinse the reconstituted mushrooms in several changes of fresh water. Scrape clean any places where soil may still be embedded (this is not a joke – it’s a total bummer to skimp on this step and end up with gritty sauce on your homemade pasta!). Pat dry with paper towels. Chop them or leave them whole as the recipe may direct.

Do not throw out the water in which mushrooms soaked because it is rich in porcini flavor. Filter it through a strainer lined with paper towelling or cheese cloth, collecting it in a bowl or beaked pouring cup. Set aside to use as the recipe will subsequently instruct.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons shallot or onion chopped fine

2 1/2 tablespoons butter (I often replace this with vegan butter or olive oil if I want to keep the sauce vegan)

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

2 tablespoons pancetta, proscuitto, or unsmoked ham cut into 1/4″ wide strips (I leave this out to make it vegetarian and I still love it)

1 1/2 cups fresh, ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped, or canned imported Italian plum tomatoes, cut up, with their juice

a small packet or 1 ounce of dried porcini mushrooms reconstituted as described above

the filtered water from the mushroom soak

salt

1 pound pasta

freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese for the table (we use pecorino romano due to a cow’s milk allergy at our house and it is a suitable replacement for parm in this instance)

Instructions

1. Put the shallot or onion into a saucepan together with all the butter and oil, and turn on the heat to medium. Cook and stir the shallot or onion until it becomes colored a pale gold. (Now is when you meat eaters add the strips of pancetta or ham, and cook for 1 or 2 minutes, stirring from time to time).

2. Add the cut-up tomatoes with their juice, the reconstituted mushrooms, the strained liquid from the mushroom soak, salt, and several grindings of pepper. Adjust heat so that the sauce bubbles at a gentle, but steady simmer. Cook in the uncovered pan for about 40 minutes, until the fat and the tomato separate, stirring occasionally.

3. After tossing the pasta with the sauce serve with freshly-grated Parmesan on the side.

Sometimes I have too many limes or lemons.

In such time I squeeze their juice and freeze it. One time I got handed a gallon of lime juice. Froze it! It lasts a long time that way and then I’m always 10-20 seconds in the microwave away from throwing some into a peanut sauce, guacamole, or a gin & tonic.

Winter Squash Soup [Gruyere/Pecorino Romano Croutons optional]

I got this recipe off of Epicurious when Gourmet Magazine still existed and the “4 forks” meant I was in for a perfect recipe. I make it dairy free and leave out the sugar and cream, which is near enough to perfection for me.

Epicurious wrote: “In France, this soup would be prepared with a baking pumpkin. A mixture of butternut and acorn squashes mimics the French pumpkin’s exceptional taste and texture.”

I have also used some combination of every one of the squashes shown above to good effect. 

Ingredients:

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter or olive oil (or a combination)

1 large onion, finely chopped

4 large cloves garlic, chopped

3 x 14.5oz veggie or chicken broth 

8 cups 1-inch pieces peeled winter squash - preferably two kinds or more

1 1/4 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves

1 1/4 teaspoons minced fresh sage

1/4 cup whipping cream (I leave this out)

2 teaspoons sugar (I leave this out too)

Croutons [TOTALLY optional – I only ever added them once and it was the last time I made this soup, nearly 20 years after I first started making it]:

2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter or olive oil

1/2 inch thick baguette slices

grated Gruyere or Pecorino Romano cheese

1 teaspoon thyme leaves

1 teaspoon sage (minced fresh or dry)

Instructions:

Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and sauté until tender, about 10 minutes. Add broth, all squash and herbs; bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until squash is very tender – about 20 minutes.

Using an immersion blender, puree soup in pot (or puree it in blender working carefully in small batches). Season with salt and pepper.

For Croutons:

Preheat broiler or toaster oven. Butter 1 side of each bread slice or toss bread slices in olive oil. Arrange bread, buttered side up, on baking sheet. Broil until golden – about 1 minute. Turn over. Sprinkle cheese, then thyme and sage over. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Broil until cheese melts (about 1 minute). Ladle soup into bowls. Top each with croutons and serve. Bon appetit!