Sunday Supper: Wine and Food Pairing of the Week

Orecchiette with butternut squash, Swiss chard and hazelnuts paired to Chardonnay

This week’s recipe is inspired by Bon Appetit. Recently the gourmet magazine came out with an impressive piece on 30 Days of Butternut Squash. And, of course, we were all over it.

Their recipe for orecchiette with butternut squash is the basis for our Sunday Supper. Just as we encourage you to do with our favourite recipes, we tweaked a bit of this and added a bit of that to make it more to our liking.

Here’s what we came up with, let us know what you do to make it yours!

Orecchiette with butternut squash, Swiss chard and hazelnuts

Serves 4

This comes together in a snap and the squash lends a hearty creaminess to the dish.

What you need:

• 1/2 medium butternut squash, cut into small cubes
• 4 large cloves garlic, minced
• Salt and pepper
• 2 tsp dried thyme
• Pinch red pepper flakes (optional to taste)
• 1/2 cup dry white wine, divided
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• 3-4 large leaves Swiss Chard, sliced into ribbons
• 1 Tbsp lemon zest
• 1 cup orecchiette

How You Do It:

1. Set up a pot of water for orecchiette and when boiling, salt generously and add pasta, cooking for 10 minutes or according to instructions
2. Toast hazelnuts in a dry frying pan; when brown and fragrant, remove from heat, coarsely chop and set aside
3. Heat olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat and add cubed butternut squash in a single layer (you want the squash to brown and get crisp-tender – not steam)
4. When browned, season squash with salt and pepper and dried thyme
5. Add garlic and red pepper flakes, and cook for another 30 seconds or so, or just until garlic is fragrant
6. Deglaze with half a cup or so of wine, scraping up toasted bits from bottom of pan
7. Melt in butter
8. Add Swiss chard and stir to wilt
9. Add in chicken stock as needed to keep mixture from drying out and sticking to pan
10. Stir in lemon zest
11. Sir in cooked pasta
12. Adjust salt and pepper, and grate in parmesan stirring to coat pasta
13. Divide amongst plates, top with hazelnuts and more parmesan and serve

The Wine Sisters’ Wine Pairing

For us, butternut squash and chardonnay is a no-brainer.

Chateau des Charmes Barrel Fermented Chardonnay, VQA Niagara on the Lake, 2012
$13.95 LCBO 81653
Rich and plush, but with a bright backbone of acid to freshen up the ripe tropical fruit notes and warm baking spice flavours of vanilla and nutmeg. Oak is obviously present, but not distracting or overly dominating. Always a pleasure to drink and welcome on rainy fall days.

How Did the Pairing Work?

Butternut squash’s natural earthy sweetness pairs well to the baking spice flavours in the Chardonnay, and its hearty texture is a perfect match for the weight of a full bodied chard such as the Chateau des Charmes we picked for the pairing.