Chanterelle and Prosciutto Stuffed Patty-pan Squash

My sister’s first patty pan squash and our first chanterelle mushrooms of the year, both made their way into my kitchen this weekend. I was thrilled to create a dish using these together because they are two of my favorite Summer ingredients.

I loved the flavor of the sweet patty pan squash combined with the salty prosciutto and freshly foraged golden chanterelles. I served this as a side with our Memorial Day feast of ribs. But, this dish could be an entire fabulous meal on its own. This could be made with other types of squash or made with other mushrooms when chanterelles are not available. If we find hedgehog mushrooms this winter, I might recreate this dish with them and acorn squash. As long as the basic method is followed, substitutions can be made and this still be a delicious dish. However, I don’t know that anything could be more perfect than the ingredients used here.

This recipe is for 4 medium-sized squashes; approximately 5″ diameter patty-pan or 6″-7″ long zucchini.

Ingredients

• 4 medium patty pan Squash
• 2/3 cup cleaned and chopped chanterelles or other mushrooms
• 4 large thin slices of prosciutto fried until crisp and coarsely chopped
• 2 slices toasted and cubed sourdough bread(crust optional)
• 1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 small beaten egg
• 1/4 cup cooking chicken or vegetable stock
• 3 spring onions or 1/2 small sweet onion diced
• A few sprigs of fresh thyme (leaves removed from stems)
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil for coating squash
• 2 teaspoon olive oil or bacon grease for cooking onion

Directions

• Pre-heat oven to 375°F
• Cut the tops off of squash and hollow out centers, saving what is removed. I used a toothed grapefruit spoon to dig the centers out. Save the squash meat removed from the centers.
• Coat the empty squash with olive oil, salt and place in oven in a glass casserole dish. Bake for 25-30 minutes.
• Saute’ diced onions in olive oil or bacon grease until they are starting to become translucent .
• Add chopped mushrooms to the onions and cook on medium heat until the mushrooms have released their liquid and it has evaporated. This should take 3-5 minutes. Stir frequently.
• Add finely chopped squash and most of the thyme leaves to the onion and mushroom mixture. Cook for 3-4 more minutes until the squash is tender.
• Season cooked vegetables with salt and pepper.
• After vegetables have cooled, combine vegetables, cubed bread, Parmesan, prosciutto, egg and cooking stock.
• When the squash is fork tender, remove from oven and stuff with the delicious stuffing. Pile it as high as you can.
• Return the squash to the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes.
• Top with a few thyme leaves and Parmesan.