Bryan Calvert’s squash soup puts Hubbard’s orange flesh in focus

A cut Blue Hubbard squash photographed in Kent, Ohio, on November 15, 2008. Ingredient archive image, not Bryan Calvert’s finished soup. Credit: Badagnani / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0. Unmodified.

Tito Baron Media News Desk

Blue-skinned Hubbard squash supplies the orange base for a soup highlighted by chef Bryan Calvert in a November 2 Associated Press feature. Drawn from his cookbook Brooklyn Rustic, the dish pairs puréed squash with blue cheese and sliced pear.

Calvert favors a baby blue Hubbard rather than an unwieldy full-size specimen. His published approach softens the squash on the stovetop before blending it, while the toppings introduce contrasting textures. Butternut appears as an alternative in the source. This is a seasonal return to a recipe from a book carrying a 2016 copyright, rather than a newly released cookbook.

For readers buying whole squash, storage is another useful distinction. Iowa State University Extension recommends keeping winter squash in a cool, dry, ventilated place, at about 50 to 55 degrees Fahrenheit. It advises keeping the fruit away from ripening apples and pears, whose ethylene can shorten its storage life. That is advice for storing the whole squash, not for storing a finished soup.

The university also cautions against treating all winter squash alike. Under appropriate conditions, Hubbard keeps considerably longer than acorn squash. Acorn varieties should not receive the warm curing treatment recommended for other winter squash because it can reduce their quality and storage life.

Tito Baron Media has not tested Calvert’s dish. Readers should consult the original feature and cookbook for the recipe rather than treat this report as cooking instructions. The accompanying ingredient photograph is an archive image of a cut Blue Hubbard, not Calvert’s finished soup.

Sources

• Calvert feature, AP via WRAL
• Iowa State winter squash storage guidance