Marrying textures and tastes to one another is one of the most satisfying pleasures of cooking: the soft with the crisp, the steamily hot with the icily cold, the spicy with the mint cool. I somehow had a feeling that crisp crumbs might work well with the soft, collapsing flesh of a squash. They do, but are more interesting when the crumbs are not packed on top like a crumble but lightly scattered over and between the pieces of squash.
Recipe information
Yield
enough for 4 as an accompaniment, 2 as a principal dish
Ingredients
Preparation
Step 1
Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Peel the squash, discarding the seeds and fibers, and cut the flesh into large, bite-sized pieces. Put the squash into a steamer basket or metal colander and steam over boiling water for fifteen to twenty minutes, until tender when pierced with the tip of a knife.
Step 2
Peel and finely chop the garlic and put it into a shallow pan with the 5 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. Thinly slice the chile and add it to the pan with the rosemary and grated orange zest. The smell will be lightly aromatic. Add the parsley and breadcrumbs and stir briefly while they color lightly. They should be no darker than a pale gold.
Step 3
Put the pumpkin in a shallow baking dish or roasting pan, salt and pepper it, then add the butter in small knobs. Sprinkle the breadcrumbs over and drizzle lightly with olive oil. Bake for thirty-five to forty minutes, until the crumbs are deep gold and the pumpkin is meltingly tender.
