Marina di Chioggia squash- what do I do with it?

[Filbert]

I’m almost a complete squash/pumpkin novice, having literally never tasted anything even pumpkin flavoured until my mid 20s, but I managed to grow a Marina di Chioggia squash last year. Despite the fact that it’s now March, it’s still sitting there, because I have no idea what to do with it. It’s started looking faintly accusing…

I’m vegetarian, and not a very good cook- what on earth do I do with it?

Any suggestions?

I really don’t want to leave it to go off, it was the most impressive looking thing I grew last year.

[silenus]

Barring any better recipes, you can make a pasta dish with it. Last night the wife made a pasta prima verde using diced summer squash, mushrooms and red bell pepper in a cream sauce. This is the perfect way to use vegetables you don’t know what to do with.

[fighting_ignorant]

This looks nice

The first dish I used it in was salad. I saw a brief mention of people throwing it into salads or just topping it with a little goat cheese and eating it that way so I chopped some into cubes and added it to a salad I made that included lettuce (from my garden!), onions, celery, carrots, avocado slices, almond slivers and goat cheese, with a balsamic vinegar dressing. Yum. The sweetness of the Marina di Chioggia was a nice addition.

The second I made was inspired by The Grilled Cheese Truck, which has a Harvest Melt that includes butternut squash, leeks, balsamic and agave syrups. Since, as I said, you can pretty much do with the Marina di Chioggia anything you can do with butternut squash, it occurred to me it might taste good in a grilled cheese sandwich. The one I made included the Marina di Chioggia squash, plus onions, red peppers, basil and a mixture of swiss, goat and mozzarella cheeses.