Spare Time in the Kitchen

My neighbor dropped off four Patty Pan squash as my daughter had mentioned that in the past, her mother-in law loved them, but she had never had any. Well I never had any either and researched how to use them. The first thing I realized was that the ones that were donated were very large. Most recipes on the internet said they are best about 3-4 inches in diameter. Well two of these are 7" and two others are 8" in diameter! What to do? How not to waste these?

Before daughter comes over to get them I experimented on one, just because I could! 

I happened to have a pound of maple bacon thawed and figured I'd incorporate some of it into a mixture of squash chunks. I remembered that I have three hot dog rolls in the freezer and thought I could cut them into small bread cubes. I had recently chopped and froze some onions and also have some fresh cloves of garlic on hand, so I proceeded to work on these items. 

The first thing I did was to scrub down all four squash. Then I picked one and put it in a pot of water about 1 inch deep and par-boiled it for about 10 minutes because the skin seemed very tough and thick. After letting it cool down I scooped out the (large) seeds and cut off the skin and made small chunks. All were put into a large bowl.

After draining and mashing the bacon, I smashed it in a baggie with my marble rolling pin, making smaller bits and pieces. About half went into the bowl. The cut up hot dog rolls went in next. The chopped onions, one minced garlic clove, shakes of pepper, salt, oregano, basil and thyme followed with about 1/2 cup of Parmesan-Romano cheese. All was mixed together by hand. I then patted it into a foil-lined glass baking dish, topping with drizzles of EVOO and a little 1/2 & 1/2. This was covered and put into the refrigerator overnight. 

Results tomorrow. I already had thawed some jumbo shrimp for my dinner.