Recipe: Savory Squash Bread Pudding

One of the many nice things about Smith was that, unlike some colleges you hear about, we really had pretty excellent food and it was served in a pleasant, homey environment. One of my favorite Smith desserts was the coconut bread pudding. Whenever we had it, I'd take a big paper cupful back to my room for later and end up chirring it all within the hour. It was good.

Since then, I've had one or two other delicious bread pudding experiences - Susan brought a pumpkin bread pudding with cream cheese sauce to a dinner party I hosted and Amity had a really good bread pudding with bourbon sauce at her St. Patrick's day bash - but until Thursday I had never tasted a savory bread pudding. My excellent new cookbook "Simply in Season," written by Mennonites and given to me by my Aunt Grace, contains a recipe for savory squash bread pudding, which struck me as an admirable use for the butternut squash I got at the Farmers' Market last week.

The only trouble with this dish is that it's hard to reheat without a microwave. Steaming it for a few minutes seems to work okay - it keeps it fairly moist. However, if you have a microwave you won't have this problem. It also makes the house smell really nice.

Peel and cut into 1/2 inch pieces:
3 cups butternut squash.
Bake at 400 degrees until tender, about 12 minutes. Remove from oven and reduce temperature to 350. (If you are so inclined, it might be a good idea to puree the squash. I did not do this because I didn't feel like dirtying the food processor. It's certainly fine to leave it in chunks, but it might be neat to have it more integrated into the custard.)

In a frying pan, saute:
1 cup onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
with a bit of olive oil until tender. Remove from heat.

Whisk together:
3 large eggs
2 large egg whites
2 cups milk
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
salt
pepper
nutmeg or other spice (I used garam masala, which worked well)
Stir in squash, onion, and garlic.

Pour this mixture over:
9 cups day old bread (I used French bread from Wal-Mart because not even I am going to bake a whole loaf of bread just for bread pudding. Sourdough might also be good.)
Stir gently to combine and let stand 10 minutes.

Sprinkle on top:
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese.
Bake at 350 degrees until custard is set and top is lightly browned, 45 minutes. Serves 4-6.

This would be a nice dish for an autumnal dinner party if you are not inviting anyone with a phobia of plant-based foods or soggy bread. A spinach salad or some bitter greens like kale or broccoli rabe would help to mitigate the heavy breadiness of it all. A fruit or bittersweet chocolate dessert - nothing too heavy and nothing cakey - would make an admirable conclusion to the meal.