Butternut Squash Soup

See that butternut squash and those sweet potatoes.  I grew those babies.  Just thought you should know that before we get started.  It always makes me happy when a recipe begins with food that's been grown in my garden.  

I had intentions of doing a weekly soup post during the winter months, but I can't seem to get around to bringing my ideas to fruition.  I will start with this one though, and maybe others will follow.  Butternut squash is one of my favorite autumn/winter soups.  The squash and sweet potatoes are some of the last vegetables to come out of the garden and they store well in my basement and garage.  This soup finished off the stored squash, which were beginning to show their age, but the sweet potatoes still look as good as the day I dug them.  That's so awesome!

I cut the squash lengthwise and scooped out the seeds, then placed them cut side down with a little water in the pan.  This recipe doesn't call for sweet potatoes, but I had one already peeled in the refrigerator, so decided to put it to use.  In case you're wondering why I had a peeled sweet potato in the fridge, it's because I had cooked sweet potato fries earlier in the week and had peeled two potatoes for that dish.  They were so big, it only took one potato for fries for five people.  Yes, I love those Beauregard potatoes.  I also cut up an apple, in chunks, to cook along with the sweet potatoes, added a little oil and gave them a quick stir.  In a hot oven (400 degrees), I roasted all of this until it was tender.

Once cooled, it's easy to scoop out the flesh of the squash.  Because I wasn't planning to make the soup until the next day, I put everything in a bowl and kept it in the refrigerator over night.  The next day, I chopped a couple of slices of pancetta (you could use regular bacon instead), but pancetta is oh, so good.  I buy it on sale, vacuum seal it and freeze for recipes that really benefit from the extra flavor.

I sauteed the pancetta and set it aside.  In the rendered fat, I sauteed a small chopped onion and a clove of garlic. Then, I added the cooked squash, apple and potato.

To this, I poured in enough chicken broth to barely cover the vegetables, gave it a stir and cooked it for about twenty minutes at a simmer, keeping my eye on it and stirring frequently. 

You can see how it cooked down so nice and thick.  I like this soup silky smooth, so I put it in the blender

and added a little cream to make it really wonderful.  It doesn't take a lot, but you can taste test and then add more if you want.

Once the soup has been blended, I put it back in a pot on the stove and started adding flavors.  This is the fun part, because you have to taste it as you go along.  I grated a little fresh nutmeg, added salt and some brown sugar, along with a little butter.  Stir, taste, add, stir, taste, add ...until you get it just right.

This is what it looked like when I served it.  I drizzled a little maple syrup (the real thing, of course) on top, and sprinkled on some of the cooked pancetta.  Then I invited my neighbor over, and we had lunch.  Soup is always better when shared.