Butternut Squash Galette Recipe
Galette is a French term, used for a flat, free-form, crusty cake whether sweet or savory. I have been drooling over this galette ever since my friend, Lori, posted a photo of the one she'd made on facebook. The recipe is from epicurious. You may someday get a chance to know Lori too. She has auditioned for Gordon Ramsey's MasterChef.
Tonight, was my office (church staff) Christmas party, and I needed a dish to take. This seemed like the perfect choice because my daughter, a vegetarian, was coming with me. In some situations, her choices are so limited that I always like to bring along a meatless dish.
The galette was popular, as were all of the other dishes. I love potluck dinners!
The crust was so easy to roll out; it has a wonderful texture - no splitting or cracking. I may add a little more fresh sage to the crust next time; its flavor was very subtle.
This may be the first time I've used leeks. Caramelized as they were, they added a sweetness and a savory warmth. The one suggestion my daughter made was to use more or a sharper goat cheese next time. I intentionally chose a very soft, mild goat cheese because I was worried that it might be overpowering. She's a fan of the flavor and was disappointed that it wasn't more pronounced. So proceed according to your own tastes and feelings about goat cheese.
Ingredients
For the pastry:
- 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
- 1 tablespoon chopped sage leaves
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 4 to 8 tablespoons cold water
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten
- 1 teaspoon canola oil
- For the filing:
- 1 small (2 pound) butternut squash, peeled, seeded, cut into 2 x 1/4 inch slices (should yield about 4 cups)
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 2 leeks, the white and light green parts only, thinly sliced
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 6 ounces soft, mild goat cheese, crumbled
Directions
To make the dough, pulse the flour, butter, sage, and salt in a food processor until it has the texture of a coarse meal. (I'm not intimidated by making pie crust, so I usually don't bother with using the food processor - too many parts to wash, but in this case, it seemed like the best way to insure the sage was finely chopped and evenly distributed.)
While pulsing, slowly add ice water, using just enough for the dough to form a ball. Don't overwork it.
Shape the dough into a 5 inch disk, wrap in plastic, and chill at least one hour.
Preheat the oven to 500 degrees.
Toss the squash with 1 tablespoon olive oil and salt.
Spread squash over a baking sheet and roast for 20 to 30 minutes, until the edges and undersides are golden brown. Turn once during the roasting (exercise EXTREME caution when opening the oven door to do this. The blast of steam that hit me in the face was frightening.)
Remove squash from the oven and reduce temperature to 375.
While the squash is cooking, saute the leeks in the remaining olive oil, with a sprinkle of sea salt, over medium high heat loosely covered for 10 to 15 minutes.
Transfer leeks to a large bowl and mix with goat cheese, pepper and squash. (Both the dough and the filing can be prepared a day in advance and refrigerated. I lined a 9 inch cake pan with plastic wrap and spread the filing around the pan, bringing the wrap around the top of the filing before refrigerating. That way my squash mixture is the right size to plop in the middle of my pie crust.)
Roll dough into a 13 to 14 inch circle.
Put filing in the center of the dough leaving a 2 to 3 inch margin all around the filing.
Fold the edges of the dough up to cover the filing, pleating as necessary.
Whisk the oil into the beaten egg and brush the pastry with the egg mixture and bake until golden, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool 10 minutes before serving.
Serves 6 as a main dish, 8 as a side dish.