Kind of a Bust - Roasted Garlic and Butternut Squash Cassoulet

I'll start this by saying that not everything can knock your socks off. If everything is fantastic, then nothing is, so I guess it's important to have something pretty average every now and then to remind yourself what a truly delicious dish tastes like. Right??

Bean and squash cassoulet

I've had some butternut squash in the freezer that I've been needing to use for a while - every week I give Matt an option of squash something or other, and every week he chooses the not-squash option. This week, I came up with four squash options and had him pick one - squash soup, squash bread pudding, squash gratin, and this squash cassoulet. To my surprise, he chose the cassoulet (I thought he'd go for the soup).

Cassoulet is a specialty of southern France, one of those traditional dishes with endless regional variations, each better than the next. Most versions call for duck, pork, or lamb (depending on what town you're in), and all call for a substantial amount of white beans. The dish is thought to have been invented in Castelnaudary, where it is cooked with pork. Going to Toulouse soon? Cassoulet there is traditionally made with duck confit and sausage. Find yourself in the medieval walled village of Carcassone? Your cassoulet will have pork and lamb in it, and perhaps a partridge if it's hunting season. (See Paula Wolfert's The Cooking of Southwest France for more on cassoulet and it's origins.) The meat and beans are slow-cooked in a traditional dish called a cassole - a deep dish with slanting sides. I've long wanted to make one, but have never found a vegetarian version, or even a meat version that could easily become vegetarian. It's not like you can easily replace duck confit.

Roasted garlic. This was the most exciting part, I thought.

Which made me all the more excited when I found this recipe for a basically vegetarian garlic and squash cassoulet. The original recipe uses pancetta or bacon, but is really a bean and squash dish and not a meat dish. I figured leaving out the pancetta wouldn't really change the recipe that much, although of course the smoky flavor from the bacon will be missing. But that does not bother me. Instead of relying on meat, the recipe mixes roasted garlic, caramelized onions, and butternut squash with the beans and a small amount of liquid topped with a breadcrumb and parmesan crust. Sounds good, right?

And the garlic pulp.

The recipe starts with roasting a whole head of garlic, something I have never done before. You peel off the papery skin, wrap it in foil, and toss it in the oven for an hour or so. If you're into garlic, you will appreciate the way your house smells after 45 minutes or so. If you're not into garlic, you probably wouldn't ever make this anyway. The roasted garlic paste is mixed in with the caramelized onions, squash, beans, and a scant half cup of broth, before it's all plopped in the oven for another hour or so.

While I think there's some potential here, the garlic flavor was not at all pronounced or even noticeable, which bummed me out after all the rigamarole of roasting it and squeezing the garlic paste out of the still hot cloves. And the hour that it took. The small amount of liquid added wasn't enough to create a cohesive dish. Everything was cooked through and tender, but there was none of the jus left in the pot - there was nothing to hold it all together and to help all the flavors meld. The seasoning was a little off, too. The recipe uses thyme and a bay leaf; I added in some herbes de provence as well, but even this was not enough. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't that great, either. And since it takes a few hours to put together, it doesn't seem worth the effort. Which is too bad because it makes a lot and we will be eating so-so leftovers for a while. Oh well.

Bon appetit!

Roasted Garlic and Butternut Squash Cassoulet
Cooking Light magazine (I don't know the date - I just have the clipping)

1 whole garlic head
4 oz. pancetta or bacon, chopped
2 cups sliced onion
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp white wine vinegar
4 1/2 cups cubed butternut squash (about 2 lbs.)
1/2 cup broth
1/2 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
4 16-oz cans cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1 bay leaf
2 oz stale bread
1 Tbsp fresh grated parmesan
1/2 tsp olive oil
1 Tbsp chopped parsley

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove skin from garlic, but do not peel or separate cloves. Wrap in foil and roast in oven about an hour. Let cool a few minutes, then separate cloves and squeeze to release pulp. You only need half of the pulp - use the rest for something else.

In a large Dutch oven, saute pancetta over medium high heat five minutes or til crisp. Remove pancetta, cook onion and 1 Tbsp oil five minutes. Reduce heat to medium low, and cook 25 minutes or until onion is very tender and browned, stirring frequently. Stir in vinegar.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Add to the onion the garlic pulp, pancetta, squash, and ingredients through bay leaf, stir well. Place bread in food processor, pulse 10 times or til coarse crumbs measure about 1 cup. Combine with cheese and 1/2 tsp olive oil, sprinkle evenly over squash mixture. Cover and bake 50 minutes or til squash is tender. Remove lid and cook additional 15 minutes til topping is browned. Discard bay leaf, sprinkle with parsley.

Serves 8.