Askutasquash

Um. Gesundheit?

I enjoy discovering culinary history, and it's fun to share what I learn with the kids. This week in the Kids Café we learned that the word "squash," comes from the Narragansett word, askutasquash, meaning "eaten raw." Not that we were eating it raw. Nor am I recommending that as a general practice--even the starving pilgrims didn't enjoy squash à la askutasquash. This Sunday the children were fortunate to be welcomed into the kitchen by the aroma of butternut squash roasting in the oven. They also saw this when they stepped up to their stations:

 

And they knew immediately that it was time to get messy.

What you see up there quickly became a table lined with messy hand monsters literally squealing with glee over their dough-caked fingers. They had so much fun making noodles a couple of weeks ago I decided we'd do it again, only this time it was butternut squash ravioli on the menu. Even though it was only their second time making pasta dough their efforts produced a much smoother, softer dough and the resulting rolled pasta was much easier to handle.

We ended up with nice, long sheets of dough and had no trouble at all spacing dollops of butternut squash mixed with ricotta, nutmeg, salt, and pepper at regular intervals to form square or round ravioli.

It was a sprint to the end as we cooked the pasta and then served it up with a tasty light Alfredo sauce. There was no time to eat this week, so everyone went home with a Chinese take-out container—that is, everyone except for my son, Ben, who so thoroughly cleaned his plate that I had an actual concern for the state of the porcelain's glaze when he'd finished. And then, when we got home, he insisted on making another batch, which we all ate for dinner!