Sucrine du Berry squash ✦

Sucrine du Berry

What it is

A Berry heirloom of the moschata group, small and pear-shaped, whose skin ripens from dark green through straw to ochre, which is the only reliable sign that it is ready. The flesh is dry and fine-grained where a pumpkin is watery, which is why it was traditionally worked into sweet tarts and flans rather than soup.

In the kitchen

Cure it three weeks after cutting before you cook it: the starch converts to sugar and the flesh dries further. Roast it halved, cut side down, at 190 °C with no water, or the dryness that makes it worth having is lost.

Goes with

Butter Cinnamon Cream Hazelnut Sage Nutmeg Honey

Same species

Butternut squash Courgette flower Kabocha Muscade de Provence squash Pattypan squash Red kuri squash

In season alongside

Borlotti bean Northern sweet shrimp Nantucket bay scallop Blue corn Brocciu Brussels sprout

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