At Metro Bis restaurant in Simsbury, Connecticut, chef/owner Chris Prosperi serves locally-inspired food with French and Italian accents. He’s one of our favorite chefs, so we invited him to come and do a cooking demo hosted by lifestyle editor Amy Traverso at the Cider Days festival in 2014. There, he made this simple, creamy squash and cider bisque. Served with a salad and a loaf of good bread, it’s the perfect warming supper.
Yield:
8 to 10 servingsIngredients
2 pounds butternut squash
2 large tart apples, such as Granny Smith, Northern Spy, McIntosh, or Macoun
1 pound white potatoes (any type)
1 Spanish or other mild onion, chopped
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
4 cups apple cider
1 cinnamon stick
Salt and black pepper to taste
1/2 cup heavy cream
Instructions
Peel the squash, apples and potatoes. Chop the squash into large chunks and scoop out seeds. Halve the apples and remove the seed core. Set the vegetables aside.
Heat a 4-quart pot on medium-high heat. Melt butter in the pot and add the chopped onions. Cook until the onions soften and turn translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the squash, apples and potatoes to the pot. Cook until the vegetables and fruit just begin to take on a little color, 5 to 10 more minutes. Pour in the cider and add the cinnamon stick to the pot.
Stir, and lower the heat. Simmer until the ingredients are soft, 20-25 minutes. Fish the cinnamon stick out of the pot. Puree the vegetables in the pot using an immersion blender. Or, transfer to a food processor, blender or food mill and puree in batches. Return to the pot. Stir in the 1/2 cup cream and add salt and pepper to taste.
Amy Traverso
Amy Traverso is the senior food editor at Yankee magazine and co-host of the public television series Weekends with Yankee, a coproduction with WGBH. Previously, she was food editor at Boston magazine and an associate food editor at Sunset magazine. Her work has also been published in The Boston Globe, Saveur, and Travel & Leisure, and she has appeared on Hallmark Home & Family, The Martha Stewart Show, Throwdown with Bobby Flay, and Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. Amy is the author of The Apple Lover’s Cookbook, which was a finalist for the Julia Child Award for best first-time author and won an IACP Cookbook Award in the “American” category.
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