Spicy roasted squash, without fear

Spicy Butternut Squash (Mary Elizabeth Wiliams)

You don’t need an expensive new piece of equipment, or an obscure ingredient you have to hunt for. You just need a fresh way of preparing an old favorite. In "One Way," we’ll revisit classic ingredients and dishes, giving them a new twist with an easy technique you haven’t tried before.

It was a vibrant autumn afternoon, in one of my favorite eateries. I was seated at Woodstock's Dixon Roadside, the cozy yet modern restaurant from the same folks behind Phoenicia Diner, drinking pinot out of a can and feeling all was right with the world. Best of all, I was eating exactly the kind of thing I'd never make for myself at home — a generous portion of ancho roasted butternut squash. It was insanely good, a dish I'd gladly eat weekly. But I have squash obstacles. 

Squash is undoubtedly one of the best things about the fall, but I always recoil from actually buying them, because then I'd have to cut into them. Give me a can of pumpkin puree and I'm golden. Give me some of the pre-cut stuff at the supermarket, and sure, maybe I'll give it a sniff. Show me a whole butternut or a kabocha or an acorn and I'm like, "What is this, the safe at the Bellagio?"