Overly Sweet Butternut Squash

[elion_84]

Do you find butternut squash too sweet?

Twice in the last couple of weeks I bought very nice butternut squash at the farmers market. The first time I made ravioli, the second time pasta (Mario Batali's recipe from last F&W). Both time my wife complained that the dish was too sweet. The second squash looked not quite ripe, but sauteeing seemed to bring out a lot of sugar.

Is the a way to make it less sweet? Should I try different kind of squash? If so, what kind?

[Kevin72]

Maybe it's too early in the season . . . ? Seems like later in the winter you get those gargantuan kinds that are fairly starchy. You could mix with another type of pumpkin, they seem a little less sweet than the butternut squash.

[chromedome]

Dry cooking methods such as roasting and sauteeing tend to bring a squash's sugars to the fore. You might want to blanch or par-cook the squash in a little bit of water before sauteeing; that would diminish the sweetness somewhat but allow you to finish the dish in the prescribed fashion.

I know that pumpkin ravioli are widespread in northern Italian cuisine. Perhaps Mario deliberately uses the butternut squash alternative to take advantage of the sweeter, dryer vegetable?

[Rachel Perlow]

Did you add any salt to the dish? I know that butternut squash in particular needs some to balance the sweetness.

[gfweb]

A week ago I roasted some chunks of squash. They were nice...a little sweet.

 

I wrapped the unused squash butt in saran and refrigerated it for a week and chopped and roasted it the same way.  It was much much sweeter.

 

Is this a squash thing...sweetening with refrigeration?  Or is it sweetening after cutting and storage?

 

I vaguely recall something about squash sweetening if you cook it at a lower temp first.

 

Any ideas?

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Sweet potato sweetens if you cook it at a lower temperature.  I didn't know much about squash amylase, so I googled...

 

https://journals.ashs.org/downloadpdf/journals/jashs/124/6/article-p587.pdf

 

 

[heidih]

I am not being facetious - I think the butt/thicker end is sweeter. So the thickest part. My reading is the butt end was not already roasted.

Edited December 4, 2021 by heidih (log)

[Martin Fisher]

I think it's called cold induced sweetening.

White potatoes will also turn sweet in a fridge — starch converts to sugars.

Edited December 9, 2021 by DiggingDogFarm (log)