Recipe: Savory Butternut Squash Galette

Savory Butternut Squash Galette | Design Mom

Savory Butternut Squash Galette | Design Mom

By Gabrielle. 

Last month, Liz Berget of Carpé Season, brought us a couple of recipe posts, and I’ve been loving the recipes so much (have you tried the Apple Cobbler?!), that I asked her to keep them coming. My request this month was for a galette. But I didn’t want a dessert galette — I wanted a savory version. Something that could make the most of my favorite fall flavors, and something perfect for a low-stress mid-week dinner. I love what she came up with!

Squash, apples, onions, parmesan, sage — I would have never thought to pair these flavors together, but I’m telling you it smells (and tastes!) like heaven.

Before we jump into the recipe, I’d love to know, have you ever made a galette? I think of them as a less-formal pie. Any ingredients you like, cradled loosely in a pastry crust, no special baking dish required. Typically, my galette’s are filled with fruit and served as dessert, but like I said, this month, I was craving a dinner galette. I hope you enjoy it!

Savory Butternut Squash Galette | Design Mom

Here’s what Liz says:

When the leaves start falling from my front-yard maples and piling up a foot deep, I suddenly start wanting my house to smell like Thanksgiving stuffing at all hours of the day. I wake up considering adding brussels sprouts to my eggs, and I continue to think about roasting root vegetables well after dinner. Don’t get me wrong, I love sugar as much as the next person, but I’d take a braised pot roast over a pumpkin-spiced anything, any day.

Comforting savory foods, I think, were made for fall. Gone are the days of summer’s abundance. In fall, there is simply a little less to work with. The random squash in your pantry, the root vegetables hanging in your kitchen, Monday’s leftover chicken? All of them can somehow usually find a home together in a savory dish; whereas, baking is precise and measured. Cookies are science.

At our house, we usually have a salad night and a rice-bowl night once a week, where all of the random odds and ends that are just this side of going bad get thrown together to make our dinner. Meals like this take less planning as well as please the depression-era grandmother in me who hates to see food go to waste.

Galettes are another platform for this kind of meal. While you need to use your head about what’s going inside and if it might need to be pre-cooked (I’m looking at you, carrots), just about anything can live happily together inside of a galette.

This galette is exactly what fall wants to smell like. The combination of butternut squash, tart apples, onions, sage, and parmesan make for a slightly sweet, nicely textured filing within the flakiest pastry crust. Topped with crispy bacon bits and fresh or fried sage, this galette wants to be your dinner tonight…served simply alongside a salad with some attitude (think frisee or arugula)…or maybe even as a Thanksgiving side dish in a few weeks.

Make a Yummy Savory Butternut Squash Galette - Perfect for Fall | Design Mom

Savory Butternut Squash Galette with Apples, Onions, Parmesan & Sage

Notes
– Consider preparing the pastry the night before or in the morning; it needs at least an hour in the fridge to be workable.

– The key to a flaky pastry is to work quickly with COLD ingredients. You also don’t want to overwork the dough; a few lumps in there create that flakiness.

– Don’t try to peel your squash whole; you’ll break your peeler or cut your hand off. Take the peel off individual cubes; much, much easier!

Ingredients
Pastry (via Smitten Kitchen):
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/4 cup sour cream
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup ice water
Egg Wash: 1 egg + 1 teaspoon water, lightly beaten

Filling
1 pound butternut squash (app. 2.5 cups cubed)
1-2 tart apples (app. 2 cups chopped) (like Granny Smith)
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 tablespoons minced fresh sage (about 12 leaves)
½ cup + 1 tablespoon shredded parmesan cheese, divided

Garnish:
4 strips bacon (app. 4 ounces)
5 fresh sage leaves

Make a Yummy Savory Butternut Squash Galette - Perfect for Fall | Design Mom

Directions
Pastry:
15 minutes before preparing pastry, place water and butter in the freezer.
In a large bowl, combine the flour and salt.
In a small bowl, combine the sour cream, lemon juice, and water. Keep this mixture in the refrigerator until ready to use.
Cut the cold butter into small cubes and work into the flour combination with a pastry cutter or quick fingers until the mixture is like a coarse meal. Make a well in the center of the mixture. Pour in half of the sour cream mixture and use your fingertips to mix until large lumps form. Mix until large lumps are mostly gone and make another well in the center. Pour remaining sour cream mixture in and mix with your fingertips again, until the dough is mostly smooth. Pat into a ball; try not to overwork. The mixture will be very wet. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour and up to one day.

Filling:
Cut the squash in half. Scoop out seeds. Cut into 1-inch cubes, removing the peel from each cube (much easier to do this way than removing peel from whole squash).
Peel and core the apple(s). Cut it into ¾-inch sized cubes.
In a large bowl, stir the squash cubes, apple cubes, chopped onion, minced sage, and shredded ½ cup parmesan.

Assemble:
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 400*. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Generously flour work surface. Remove pastry dough from refrigerator and gently roll out into a 12-inch circle (about ¼-inch thick). Be careful not to roll too thin or create holes in the crust. If desired, you can trim the most jaggedy edges.
Transfer pastry onto prepared baking sheet now.
Scoop filling into the center of the rolled out dough; leave a solid 2-inch border.
Fold pastry edges towards the center in overlapping sections. The middle will remain open.
Brush the edges of the pastry with the egg wash, and sprinkle the crust with remaining 1 tablespoon shredded parmesan.
Bake for 40-50 minutes until crust is golden-brown.

Garnish:
Option 1: Fry bacon until crisp. Drain on paper-towel-lined plate. Once cool, crumble and sprinkle over galette along with either minced fresh sage leaves; alternately, you can fry whole sage leaves in bacon grease for 30 seconds for a crispy garnish.

Option 2: If you’re not interested in the fried sage and looking for an easier-cleanup option, you could cook your bacon in the oven alongside your galette at 400* on a parchment-paper-lined baking sheet for 15-20 minutes until crisp. Drain on paper-towel-lined plate; then crumble. Sprinkle on galette with fresh, minced sage.

Savory Butternut Squash Galette | Design Mom

——–

Are you drooling already? So yummy! Thank you, Liz. I’m glad to know about this recipe, and I’m glad to know about the pastry recommendation as well. (Because sometimes I crave a sweet galette too, and this will work for both!) And now, Dear Readers, please do let me know if you make this recipe, or try any substitution with your favorite fall ingredients. This is so flexible, I feel like it would work for a thousand variations! Happy cooking.

Credits: Images, styling & recipe by Liz Berget. Assistance by Amy Christie.

5 thoughts on “Recipe: Savory Butternut Squash Galette”

  1. Oh my gosh, I am a galette addict. Maybe it’s because I mostly eat vegetarian and prefer savories to sweets, but let’s be honest, it’s also because you can eat it for any meal of the day, warm or cold. I haven’ made her exact recipe, but onions, squash and apples are the ideal fall combo! I would throw some spinach in there, too.

    I made this one on Tuesday, and LOVED the cornmeal crust:
    http://food52.com/recipes/30264-slab-galette-with-swiss-chard-and-gruyere

    And this one I popped in the freezer last night, so I can bake it on Sunday evening when I get back from my weekend trip:
    http://food52.com/recipes/21136-rustic-beet-tart-and-wilted-greens

  2. I did make the cobbler, and it was amazing! We loved it.

    I’ve never done a galette, but based on the success of the cobbler, I’m willing to try. The recipe is already printed. :)

  3. I love the combination of butternut squash and sage! I make a similar dish as a pasta rather than a galette.

    I’m puzzled by the comment regarding the difficulty of peeling butternut squash–I do this frequently, and have never had difficulty. (I could easily imagine it being pretty much impossible with a ribbed or irregularly shaped squash.) So much easier than trying to get a grip on each individual cube!

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