Zucca and other 'veg bag' inspiration...

My local community is very lucky to be part of an organic 'veg bag' scheme which has given us all some challenges in using up an abundance of lovely, seasonal fruit and vegetables.  Today's bag is starting to give us a hint of autumn approaching, even if the heat here in Naples isn't!

'Zucca' is a common Italian squash, somewhere between pumpkin and butternut with a very distinctive but fairly mild flavour. Apart from making soup or roasting as a side dish, you can make this into a pasta sauce.  In Campania, a sauce made from ‘zucca’ with shellfish added is very common with a type of pasta called ‘paccheri’, but you can use any type you like.  Pureed roasted squash can also be added to a plain risotto half way through cooking, or even mixed into a béchamel/white sauce to get some extra vegetables disguised for fussy children like mine!

To make a pasta sauce, start by boiling or steaming the squash until very soft, then puree and season it.  Soften some finely chopped onion or shallot in good olive oil.  If you are adding sausage, use some Italian style sausage meat (just split a couple of sausages open and remove the meat!) and fry it off once the onion has softened.  You can add a splash of white wine and let it cook off. Add the pureed squash, check for seasoning then toss your cooked pasta into the sauce, adding parmesan to taste as you do so.  For a seafood version, you just create a sauce without adding anything, then toss in some cooked or sauteed small prawns (gamberetti) or clams (vongole).

Other ideas for other ingredients:

Peppers – roast these in wide strips, in olive oil, then toss with ripped mint leaves and capers (or basil leaves and garlic), we had these often on a recent trip to Puglia as a side dish or antipasto, served at room temperature

Aubergines and celery leaves – make a Sicilian Caponata to use these up, a really good recipe is here: http://www.antonio-carluccio.com/Caponata

Plums – you could use some of these in a ‘streusel’ cake, adapting this recipe, which works really well for any stone fruit: http://blog.williams-sonoma.com/nectarine-streusel-coffee-cake/

Peaches – if you haven’t tried it already, do what my ‘Nonno’ and many southern Italians do. Slice some peaches, put them into a jug, add sugar if you want to, pour over some ‘smooth’ red or even white wine, chill. Eat the peaches for dessert and drink the wine! Little cantuccini biscuits on the side for dunking into the wine while eating the peaches an optional extra but good…