Acorn Squash

November weeknights are for simple pan-seared pork chops and roasted squash.

With tender acorn squash, salty pancetta, a pungent and tart vinaigrette, and bitter chicory, this hearty salad is layered in flavor and texture. It will take you through all of winter, and would fit perfectly on most holiday buffets. You can use other winter squashes, including butternut, and bacon or prosciutto can easily stand in for the pancetta.

While this recipe calls for the common butternut and acorn squash, you can also use other varieties, such as kabocha, delicata, and pumpkin—just avoid stringy spaghetti squash. If you aren’t comfortable peeling uncooked squash with a paring knife, just cut the squash into quarters, drizzle with some olive oil, toss with a few garlic cloves, and roast until soft enough to scoop out the flesh. Lastly, don’t forget the croutons, which make the soup a standout.

The chile vinaigrette here will perk up an otherwise ho-hum dish with some heat and tang. For a tasty variation, use sweet potatoes instead of acorn squash.

Thanksgiving flavors (squash, cinnamon, butter) with a Persian-inspired touch. The spiced butter is also a treat mixed into couscous.

We used acorn squash for this recipe, but other types, such as butternut or pumpkin, work as well.

Use a citrus reamer, juicer, or press to extract the pomegranate juice.

The key to enjoying dense winter squash more often is a time-saving ten or so minutes in the microwave. By cooking them first, you avoid the anxiety and danger of hacking a sturdy squash or your finger in half. Or, look for packages of ready-to-cook precut and peeled squash in the supermarket. After cooking, the other trick is to scoop the flesh into a casserole where it’s easy to char evenly under the broiler in a couple minutes. This way no one has to negotiate an unwieldy squash boat, and everyone gets as much or as little as they want. Make the casserole ahead and you’ll be glad come dinnertime. The trio of squash sauces shows how well squash gets along with a full range of sweet to savory flavors. One sauce is traditional—buttery and sweet with pecans. The second is a sweet-savory exotic beauty blending spicy chutney, dried cranberries, and almonds. The third, a savory tomato, mysteriously brings out the sweetness of the squash without overpowering it. Serve all three sauces with any squash combo and watch everyone duke it out for a favorite.

Thanks to Mrs. Brown, mother of longtime Mrs. Rowe’s employee Eric Brown, for this gently flavored pie recipe. It’s a testament to the Southern creative ability to use everything from the garden, not letting anything go to waste.

It’s fun to tinker with a familiar formula to create an altogether different dessert. In this twist on pumpkin pie, acorn squash is sweetened with honey and spiced with cinnamon and ginger for the filling, while cornmeal lends texture and flavor to the crust. The checkerboard pattern on the piecrust’s edge is simple to do—just snip the dough along the rim at even intervals and bend every other section back toward the center. Don’t skip the step of chilling the pie shell before baking—it’s crucial to helping the edge retain its shape.

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.

This may look—and taste—like a cream-based soup, but it actually has no cream. Instead, a small amount of yogurt is used, which provides tangy flavor. Store-bought frozen pureed squash is a time-saving ingredient, or you can make your own.

This dish is one of the standouts at the Valladolid Thanksgiving table. Roasting acorn squash—or any vegetable—caramelizes the flesh and brings out its natural sweetness. Your veggies will be exponentially more flavorful than they are when you boil or steam them.

Brilliant orange pumpkinlike squash fill the vegetable stands of Morocco and most other Mediterranean countries every fall, and they show up in stews, couscous, pasta, and soups like this.You may find the same squash in the States, but butternut, acorn, or sugar pumpkin—pumpkin grown for flavor, not size—are perfect substitutes and easy enough to find. (Canned pumpkin is an acceptable if not ideal alternative; drain it well.) Make this up to a day in advance, reserving the cream and cilantro to add just before serving.

Mushrooms, acorn squash, and rosemary lend a woodsy taste to roast chicken. We used cremini mushrooms, but regular white button mushrooms can be substituted.

You can prepare this dish mostly in advance—which lets you focus on getting ready for your date rather than fussing around in the kitchen. I’d suggest you serve it with a green salad with balsamic or some other light vinaigrette.

This rich dish is wonderful at a fall brunch. The tawny color of the squash, when it is baked in a casserole, adds a nice touch to a buffet table. This may be prepared ahead of time and rewarmed with good results by heating it for 20 to 30 minutes in a preheated 350°F oven.