Scalloped Butternut Squash

August 2035. Nineteenth camp. I've been counting differently this year — not just the number of camps but the seasons inside the seasons. Twenty-first year in coaching altogether. Seventeenth year in the head coach role, though the first four at my previous school before Eldorado Prep. Fifteenth season here. This counting is a kind of inventory. I take it at the start of every camp now.

The new senior class has three players who've been in the program since seventh grade. I remember their eighth-grade selves — undersized, uncertain, learning the system. Now they're eighteen and they've grown into the people the program helped shape, which is different from the people the program made, because the program doesn't make anyone. It gives you a structure and some pressure and the rest is on you. These three used it well. You can tell because they're unafraid on the field. Not reckless — unafraid. There's a difference and it matters enormously.

Lisa drove to Las Cruces last week to spend a few days with my parents while I was in camp prep mode. She said Papá looks good — walking every morning still, cooking most evenings, his garden producing an unreasonable amount of tomatoes. Mamá is sharp as ever. Lisa said they sat on the porch in the evenings and talked about the grandchildren and about the old days and that Papá told her stories about when I was young that she'd never heard before. I asked what kind of stories. She said she'd tell me later, in a tone that suggested they were not entirely flattering.

I made posole rojo this week for the first coaching staff meeting of preseason. Fifty servings, two big pots. The ritual of it settles me before a season the way nothing else does — the slow cooking, the hominy expanding in the broth, the dried red chile rendering into something that smells like the whole history of New Mexico. I've been making this posole for twenty-one years of coaching. I'll make it for however many more years I have left.

The posole fills the two big pots and feeds the whole staff, but it’s the sides that tend to surprise people — and this scalloped butternut squash has become one I come back to every August, when the evenings are still warm but the garden is already giving over to the heavier vegetables. There’s something about the layering of it, the patience it asks for, that fits the mood of those first preseason meetings: slow, deliberate, building toward something. Papá’s tomatoes go into other things, but the squash is mine to work with, and this is how I work with it.

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 55 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes | Servings: 8

Ingredients

1 large butternut squash (about 3 lbs), peeled, seeded, and sliced 1/8-inch thick
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup low-sodium vegetable broth
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves (or 1/2 teaspoon dried)
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 cup grated Gruyère cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
Fresh parsley, chopped, for garnish

Instructions

Preheat oven. Heat your oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking dish with olive oil or cooking spray and set aside.
Sauté the aromatics. Warm the olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add the sliced onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and lightly golden, about 8 minutes. Add the garlic and thyme and cook 1 minute more. Remove from heat.
Mix the cream sauce. In a medium bowl, whisk together the heavy cream, vegetable broth, smoked paprika, salt, pepper, and nutmeg until combined.
Layer the squash. Arrange one-third of the butternut squash slices in an even layer in the prepared baking dish, slightly overlapping. Top with half of the sautéed onion mixture and scatter over one-third of the Gruyère. Repeat with a second layer of squash, the remaining onion mixture, and another third of the Gruyère. Finish with the final layer of squash.
Add the cream and top with cheese. Pour the cream mixture evenly over the layered squash. Scatter the remaining Gruyère and all of the Parmesan across the top. Dot with the butter pieces.
Bake covered. Cover the dish tightly with aluminum foil and bake for 35 minutes, until the squash is beginning to soften when pierced with a knife.
Bake uncovered. Remove the foil and continue baking for 18—22 minutes, until the top is deeply golden and bubbling and the squash is completely tender.
Rest and garnish. Let the dish rest for 10 minutes before serving. Garnish with fresh parsley and serve warm.

Nutrition (per serving)

Scalloped Butternut Squash — What I Bring to the Table Before the Season Starts