We??re getting close to fall on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown.

The good news is that we??ll be in squash season soon. On our San Francisco Food Tours, we??ll start to see lots of dishes with squash. In North Beach, we??ll see lots of zucchini, everything from zucchini in dishes, such as pasta with zucchini and lots of soups. For me, I??m a big fan of butternut squash. The two ways that I like butternut squash are butternut squash soup and roasted butternut squash. For butternut squash soup, I like to saut? some shallots and garlic until they are translucent, then add some salt, pepper, oregano and sage and then cook the butternut squash in a mild stock, such as a mild chicken or vegetable stock until it??s soft, sometimes I just use water. After that, I just puree everything in food processor, rewarm it, add some cream and it??s done. For roasted butter squash, I like to peel the skin off (down to the orange), cut it in half, scoop out the seeds, then cut it into half-moons, then roast it in the over for about 15-20 minutes on each side at about 450 degrees until it just starts to brown. I just toss it in some butter, lemon juice and fresh sage and it??s ready.