Sweet and Savory Fall Family Meal

I am so excited about the arrival of fall - the leaves are turning, there is a chill in the air and yummy, spicy smells are all around us. I picked up an organic butternut squash at the store a few weeks ago and it has been sitting in the kitchen staring at me ever since. I knew I wanted to feed it to my family but I wasn't sure how. I did what any other 21st century housewife would do...

I Googled, "How to prepare a butternut squash"

And within seconds watched a video that showed me how to peal, seed and cube my squash. I'm not gonna lie - peeling and cutting it into cubes - SUCKED. I heard a rumor that Trader Joe's sells it fresh but already cubed. Next time, I'm doing that.

So there I was with a HUGE pile of cubed squash and I remembered THIS AWESOMENESS.

Potato Gnocchi with Autumn Vegetables
and Sage Brown Butter Sauce

1 package of store-bought potato gnocchi, ready to cook
1 medium-sized butternut squash or small sweet pumpkin*, peeled, seeded, and chopped
20 small shallots, peeled
3 large, firm, tart apples, cored and chopped
extra virgin olive oil, to coat
coarse salt and ground white pepper to taste

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
16 fresh sage leaves, minced
dash of sea salt
juice of 1 half fresh lemon
1/4 cup chopped fresh, flat leaf parsley


Place the butternut squash, shallots, and apples on a cookie sheet with a slight lip. Drizzle with olive oil and coat. Sprinkle with salt and white pepper. Place in a 425˚F oven until tender (approximately 25 minutes).


While vegetables are roasting, boil a large pot of salted water. While the water is coming to a boil, in a large frying pan, melt the unsalted butter over medium heat. Continue to cook it until the butter achieves a light caramel color. Remove the butter from the heat. Sprinkle in sage leaves and salt. Leave butter off of the heat in the pan.


Boil the gnocchi in gently boiling, salted water just until floating. Drain and immediately place in pan with butter. Toss gently to coat. Remove tender vegetables from oven and add to gnocchi and butter. Toss all ingredients together. Place in a serving platter. Spritz with fresh lemon juice and a dash of salt, to taste. Garnish with fresh chopped parsley. Serves 10 as a side dish.

I used whole wheat Gnocchi, honey crisp apples from a local farmers market and 1 large yellow onion instead of shallots because that's what I had on hand. I reduced the butter to 3/4 stick.

I saved the other half of my pile of cubed squash and honey crisp apples for Owen. I used my trusty steam basket ($5 at Wal-Mart) and steamed the apples and squash until very soft. It took two batches to steam it all. Then I mashed it and sprinkled it with Cinnamon for Owen. I put some in a bowl and added a tiny bit of plain yogurt. He gobbled it up.

The rest I froze in food cubes and mini Glad containers. One thing I've learned from making food for O, a little goes a LONG way. I also overcooked a few Gnocchi in the water I used to steam the squash hoping they would soak up whatever nutrients were lost during steaming. I mushed them up into very small pieces and gave those to O as well.

I made this on Friday for Shabbat dinner with baked Parmesan chicken thighs. I also had the leftover Gnocchi dish for dinner the next day by itself. Overall - yummy fall dinner for our entire family.

*Note: If you are making it with pumpkin, grab a saw

** double note: If you read THIS POST on Tofu, books are WRONG Tofu does NOT freeze well. At least for babies. I found that even thawing it on the counter it was way to spongy to feed to Owen, so I dumped the food cubes and only feed him the fresh stuff that I keep in water in the fridge. At least I tried!