Banana Pudding: On the Table: Fried Squash (and Tomato and Caramelized Onion Pasta)

I got these beautiful round squash at the farmers' market (they are regular squash, they just grow round!). I love that they are part yellow and part green.

I started thinking that the round shape would be perfect for frying. I also started thinking that to fry them, I should use the same approach as I used for fried chicken strips. From there, I wanted to come up with a full meal (I mean, fried squash could be a meal on its own, I guess, but I figured some other components would be good, too). Here is my train of thought: fried squash - fried eggplant - eggplant parmesan - deconstructed eggplant parmesan - deconstructed squash parmesan - tomato sauce - fresh tomato sauce - caramelized onions. (Inside my head is a pretty fun place to be.) The dish didn't really resemble eggplant parmesan, but it sure was delicious! To prepare:

Thinly slice the squash into rounds (mine were about 1/4 of an inch thick).

Prepare a marinade of one cup buttermilk, one tablespoon of hot sauce, and three crushed cloves of garlic (or some multiple of that formula). Put the squash in the marinade and allow to sit, in the refrigerator, for several hours (I left it in for about 6 hours).

When you are ready to prepare the dish, take the squash, still in the marinade, out of the refrigerator and allow them to come to room temperature.

Thinly slice two small yellow onions (or more!).

Put a medium-sized pot over low/medium heat, and thinly coat the bottom of the pan with melted butter and a dash of canola oil. When the fat gets hot, add the onions to the pot. Cook, stirring occassionally, until the onions are nice and browned and caramelized (about 45 minutes).

While the onions are cooking, put a large pot of salted water on to boil. Prepare half a pound of pasta according to the package directions (I used rotini). The real challenge with this dish is getting all the components to be ready at the same time!

ALSO while the onions are cooking, you are going to prepare the squash.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Put about 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch of peanut and/or canola oil and melted butter into a frying pan. Put the pan over medium heat.

In a rimmed dish, combine flour, salt, and freshly ground black pepper.

Dredge each piece of squash in the flour.

When the oil gets hot (it will bubble when you - very carefully - flick some water into it), add a few pieces of squash at a time (in a single layer) to the frying pan.

When the squash is browned on the bottom, flip it over and cook on the other side.

When the squash is browned on the bottom, transfer it to a baking dish (I just uses a pie dish). Put it in the preheated oven. About ten minutes after I added the last batch of squash to the pie dish, I turned the oven down to 250 degrees, so as to keep the squash warm without continuing to cook it too much. (This is what they looked like when I took them out of the oven - they kind of look like cookies, right??)

Meanwhile, back at the onions...

Wash a pint of grape tomatoes and slice them in half.

When the onions are beautiful and brown and caramelized, add the tomatoes to the pot, along with salt. Stir well to combine.

Cook for about 15 minutes. (Ideally, the pasta would go into the boiling water just a few minutes after the tomatoes go into the onions, so they will be ready at the same time).

When the pasta is ready, add it into the onion/tomato mixture. Stir well to combine.