Great squash recipes exposed

According to Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island, the Narragansett Tribe  called it askutasquash, meaning  "a green thing eaten raw."  Of course squash comes in plenty more colors than green and usually we cook it. 

Here's two ways.

Seattle Times food blogger Nancy Leson favors  Fall's delicata squash.  She just slices it up, discards  the seeds, tosses with olive oil, salt and pepper and bakes it. You can hear her describe her method in more detail by clicking to hear this week's audio.

Headache inducing?

When KPLU's Grooveyard and Weekend Edition Saturday host – and Groovenotes jazz blogger – Kevin Kniestedt saw the headline I was writing, he mentioned that when he first ate squash as a 6 year old it gave him a horrible headache.  Immediately.  His mom tried again, a year later.  Same result. Well into adulthood he thought he'd give it one...mo'... try.  BIG headache. 

Kevin no longer eats squash. 

One way to cook 'em

But I do. I like this recipe for zucchini and/or yellow crookneck. Yeah, I know they're summer varieties but these days you can get 'em all year long.

Here's the rough idea:

Slice into disks about a half inch thick. Toss with a little salt and let them sit in a colander for about a half hour. This draws off a lot of the moisture in them so when they hit the pan they won't immediately wind up sitting in a pool of water like drowning rats in a flooded basement— don't you hate that? 

Sautee the zuke chips in olive oil at high heat for a couple of minutes with as much minced garlic as the law allows.  Add some chopped parsley and toss together. Finally, bang in a couple shots of red wine vinegar. Or whatever vinegar you have handy —  it's really not that big a deal. 

"Women: You can't live with them, and you can't get them to dress up in a skimpy little Nazi costume and beat you with a warm squash or something."

— Emo Phillips

“Food for Thought” is a weekly KPLU feature covering the world of food as well as the thinking that goes into it. The feature is published here and airs on KPLU 88.5 every Wednesday during Morning Edition and All Things Considered.