Chez Panisse's Winter Squash, Onion and Red Wine Panade

Oh, dear. This is rather awkward. I know it was only just two days ago that I told you about Paula Wolfert's squash gratin and how much I loved it and how delicious it was. But I've actually got something better now, and you've sort of got to drop everything you're doing and go make it straight away. (Well, you might have something better to be doing right now, like voting, but after that, definitely.)

Go on! Who cares about butternut squash and sheep's milk cheese and potatoes anymore? Now it's butternut squash and long-cooked onions and stale bread and Gruyere. Seriously. Cancel your dinner plans.

I'm sorry to be a boss, but you know how it is sometimes, when you make something so wonderful that you find yourself somewhat speechless as you chew? Yes, that's what happened to us the other night. We sat there, in somewhat shocked silence as we ate. (Oh, we live a thrilling life, we do.) Look at it this way: you've got to do something tonight while you wait for the results of our election to come in, no matter who you voted for. You can't just sit in front of your computer, refreshing pages obsessively, or lounge on your couch, flicking from channel to channel in the hopes that one talking head will know something before another one does. So why not kill time making a long, slow dinner that takes close to three hours from start to finish?

Staying up late on a night like this is worth it. If not for the sheer pleasure of eating, then at least for your nerves.

The recipe comes from Chez Panisse Vegetables and is a study in the art of flavor-building. Onions are stewed with bay leaves and thyme and garlic. Wine is added and reduced, then in goes chicken stock, which simmers for a while. Good, stale-ish bread is briefly fried until golden in olive oil (or, if you happen to have duck fat lying around, you can use that, too) and two pounds of butternut squash are peeled and sliced.

Then the fun stuff begins: the layering. In goes a layer of fried bread slices, several ladlefuls of herb-scented broth and a purpureal tangle of onions. Then you arrange the mass of butternut squash slices on top of the bread and ladle in more broth and onions. The rest of the fried bread makes the top layer, along with, yes, more broth and onions and finally, you grate over it all a flurry of grated cheese.

What happens in the oven is very neat: the bread swells with the liquid and rises, so that the panade goes from being a rather dense, heavy thing to a light and puffy wonder. The flavors, already complex, concentrate and the cheese melts and bubbles into a wondrously tasty cap. It's hard to figure out whether you should eat panade with a fork or a spoon - or how to decide what you like more, the broth or the silky bread or the sweet squash or the cheesy top. Oh, who am I kidding, all of it.

So, um, yes, I'd say that today, for sure, this is the only way you should be eating butternut squash.

Winter Squash, Onion and Red Wine Panade
Serves 8 to 10

5 onions
2 pounds acorn or butternut squash
6 cloves garlic
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
2 bay leaves
12 sprigs thyme
1 cup red wine
2-3 quarts chicken stock
Kosher salt and pepper, to taste
10 slices stale country-style bread
1 ounce Parmigiano
2 ounces Gruyere

1. Begin by stewing the onions, peeled and sliced thin, over medium heat, in about 1/4 cup of olive oil. When they have begun to soften, add the garlic cloves, also peeled and sliced thin; the bay leaves; and the thyme. Continue to cook the onions until they just begin to brown, 20 to 30 minutes. Add the red wine and reduce by half. Add the stock and simmer for 30 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, peel and seed the squash and cut it into 1/8-inch-thick slices. In a sauté pan over medium heat, lightly brown the slices of bread in more olive oil.

3. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and assemble the panade: Cover the bottom of a large casserole with half the bread slices and gently ladle in enough broth (including the onions) to cover. Make a single layer of the sliced squash on top and ladle in more of the broth and onions, to cover. Make a layer with the rest of the bread, add more broth and onions so that the top layer of bread is well soaked through, and finish by grating the cheeses over the top to cover lightly.

4. Bake, covered, for 45 minutes; then uncover and bake for about 45 minutes more, until well browned. To serve, scoop the panade into bowls and ladle more of the hot broth around it.

Comments

[Gemma]

Yum. That's about all I need to say really, yum.

[Honeybee]

Mmmh, nice. And I love your gratin dish, btw.

[Jessica]

Am I missing something? Where does the onion mixture come in?

[Luisa]

Jessica - the onions are stewed in the first step and then layered in the panade in the third step.

[Giff]

This looks fabulous. I'm trying to decide if this would be a good side dish for thanksgiving, depending on how rich it is. Did it feel like a meal unto itself?

(nice to see you posting so much)

[My First Kitchen]

It's really cold where I am right now, and just thinking about this is making me warmer. I agree with Giff; is it too rich as a Thanksgiving side dish?

[jenny]

panade is even better the next day (if there's any left), pan fried, with a fried egg on top. the zuni cafe cookbook recipe for panade is great, too, made with swiss chard or sorrel. it's my favorite thing on a cold winter day.

[Luisa]

Giff and MFK: it's not that it's too rich that I wouldn't serve it as a side dish, it's that it really is sort of a one-dish meal. You need a bowl to eat it - it's not like a bread pudding that can hold its own on the corner of your plate. Panade is definitely a meal unto itself - we had a bit of salad afterwards, but just to get our greens. (I actually don't think it's a very rich dish.)

Jenny - I tried Judy's tip for pan-fried leftover panade last night and it was fine, yummy even, but I think I prefer it fresh from the oven. Of course, I didn't make an egg on top, which might have made the difference. :)

[Rose]

Sounds delicious - and I have acorn squash lying around at home too. Did you have any difficulty slicing the squash that thin? 1/8 in. seems like it might be hard to do - squash can be tough!

[Julia @ crazy about bretzels]

how great that gruyere plays a part at this recipe and the one before. I have a big block of it in my fridge and now I know what I will do with it!

[Mercedes]

I am mildly obsessed with panades of all types. They're quite formulaic (bread + cheese +onion +vege +broth) and fun to experiment with. I don't usually fry the bread, just use stale. The red wine in this one is a nice touch.

[Jeanne]

Holy guacamole, look at the state of that! Absolutely inspired. I want to rush home and make one immediately. Thanks for educating me on what a panade is!

[Mama JJ]

I made this as instructed, except for one change---used beef broth instead of chicken broth. Oh, and I baked it in a huge cast iron skillet and then, when I was serving it, I forgot that the handle was hot and so I burned my hand---you didn't tell me to do that...

I like it best after it had sat for about an hour---it seemed a little too squishy and slimy at first. And I really liked it today, reheated in the mircrowave. The only problem: no one else in my family really likes it and it made a HUGE quantity, so I think that by the time it is all finished up, I will have turned into a big hunk of panade, myself.

-JJ

[Heidi]

What a fantastic, flavorful recipe, thank you for sharing it.

[Phoebe]

This looks amazing. I want to make it tonight, but I don't have any homemade chicken broth. I'm not a huge fan of the boxed kind, but do you think the other flavors mask the broth flavor enough, or should I wait until I've got good stock? Also, why are the directions so imprecise about the amount of stock? Does it just depend on how soupy you like it? Do I want it soupy? I've never made a panade. Thanks!

[Luisa]

Rose - peeling the squash is harder than slicing it thinly, which is easy especially if you have a nice, sharp knife.

Phoebe - a little secret: I used Better Than Bouillon here and it was delicious. The flavors of the onions and garlic and thyme and red wine make for incredible alchemy with the stock, homemade or not. As for the amount of stock: the original recipe calls for 3 quarts. In the particular gratin dish I used, I simply couldn't use 3 quarts, only 2 would fit. And it was fine. I think if you used a souffle dish (like Judy Rodgers has you use with her Zuni Cafe panade recipes), then 3 quarts would work perfectly. As long as each layer is covered with enough liquid, you'll be fine.

[Cindy]

While the recipe sounds yummy, it's your fun and vivid write-up that really sold me on this. I'm trying it this weekend!

Quick question/clarification first: your recipe calls for 2-3 "quarts" of stock, but your response to Phoebe said "cups." I'm inclined to think "cups" is the proper measurement. Is that correct?

Thanks!

[Luisa]

Cindy - my bad! I meant quarts, not cups. Fixed that.

[Melissa]

Hey there Luisa, I made this last night with a kabocha I had lying around. Lots of work, but oh yummmmmmm!

[Shaun]

Luisa ~ What a recommendation! My stomach grumbled throughout the description of layering each element of this simple yet divine dish. I have not yet purchased "Chez Panisse: Vegetables" but have "Chez Panisse: Fruit," which also turns any fabulous piece of fruit into something beautiful, ethereal, and even more perfect.

[Luisa]

Shaun - of all my cookbooks, and I have many, CP Vegetables is one I turn to the most.

[jillian]

I was so won over by your accolades for this that I finally set aside the 3 hours to make it last night. The broth was the richest, most delicious liquid I have ever absorbed! Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed by the squash part of it-- my squash ended up tasting very chalky- no sweet and soft like I am used to it... Do you think my squash just wasn't ripe enough? Or maybe that i cooked it 10 minutes short of the full time because my cheese seemed very happily browned and I didn't want to burn it... I ate around a lot of the squash but loved the rest of the dish...

[Jen]

I've been wanting to buy this cookbook for ages! Now I must. This recipe is perfect for a chilly Sunday afternoon...

[Emily]

I finally got around to making this last night, after having it bookmarked since I got my copy of CPVeg over a year ago.
Hubba hubba....I groaned. I will admit and I will be proud of it. This was amazing.