Cooking Patty Pan Squash

This year in my garden I decided to try growing Patty Pan squash. My daughter grew it in her garden last year and had great success. I have two plants and they are producing like crazy! I then wondered about cooking patty pan squash.

After doing some online searches I found plenty of help in coming up with ideas.

Sautéed Patty Pan Squash

Just like any other summer squash cooking patty pan squash is easy. It can be sautéed with onions and a little spinach. I found a recipe on Allrecipes.com that sounded delicious.

Patty Pan Squash are best cooked when they are small but they can also be stuffed.

CountryLiving.com had even more delicious recipes! Roast it with garlic and fresh herbs. Or use it to make a creamy soup. They even suggested making a patty pan summer squash casserole with tomatoes and mozzarella.

I even found a recipe from the NY Times for Grilled Patty Pan Squash with Italian Salsa Verde. The squash are sliced to create a “steak” and then grilled. The “steaks” are then served with a delicious Italian Salsa Verde.

After reading many, many recipes for cooking patty pan squash I finally decided to create my own recipe using ingredients I had on hand.

I sautéed some mushrooms I had on hand with two sweet Italian sausages I had in the freezer. After the mushrooms and sausage were sautéed I added some panko crumbs, Parmesan cheese and herbs. I set the mixture aside while I parboiled the patty pan squash, just until it was fork tender. I then cut the top off of the squash and scooped out the seeds.

I stuffed the squash with the sausage mixture and placed the squash on a baking pan. I placed it in a 350 oven and baked it for 40 minute or until hot.

The result? It was delicious and served four, which meant my husband and I got two meals out of it.

If you find Patty Pan squash in your market, don’t be overwhelmed by it’s strange shape. Try cooking Patty Pan squash; you’ll be glad you did.