Pork-leek rolls with squash and pine nuts

Pumpkin and butternut squash are pretty much interchangeable in many recipes. Personally I like butternut squash more, especially after roasted, its flavor is very similar to sweet potato's, my another favorite vegetable. A few days ago I flipped through an old talian magazine Meglio di Arte in Cucina and spotted a very attractive dish - beef-leek rolls with roasted pumpkin, without hesitation I transformed it to a pork-n-butternut-squash version, my preferable combination. It turned out excellent! Except one, the magazine didn't explain (as always!) why we got to roll the leek up against the grain. I did both versions, against and along the grain (the photos as follow), and will tell you the result in the end of this post.

Recipe of pork-leek rolls with butternut squash and pine nuts

(yield 6 rolls = 2 servings as the main course)

• 2.5 - 3 cups minced pork (I used meat from ribs)
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• 3 shallots, finely chopped
• 3 leeks
• 3.5 cups butternut squash (1.5 - 2 lbs), cut into small cubes
• 1/2 onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 carrot, finely shredded
• 1 handful of pine nuts
• some dry white wine
• thyme (I used dried)
• oregano (dried)
• salt and pepper
• olive oil
• 1 cup basic tomato sauce

Directions: To prepare the butternut squash:

• Pre-heat a skillet, saute the onion with some olive oil for 2 minutes. Add a pinch of salt and butternut squash, stir for a minute or two, add thyme and spoonfuls of wine (raise heat to high), keep stirring for another minute. Put the lid on, without adding water or anything, cook it over low heat for 15 minutes. Spread the squash on a baking dish. Set aside. Pre-heat oven to 350F.

To prepare the pork-leek fillings:

• Cut the roots and dark leaves off the leeks, we only use the white and pale green parts. If the very outer sheath looks old, remove it too. Now, take out the first 4 layers of sheaths off from each leek, so totally you'll get 12 layers. Set them aside.
• Chop the rest of the leeks
• Pre-heat a skillet, add olive oil, saute the chopped leeks and shallot for a minute or two, add garlic and minced pork, a few dashes of wine, salt and pepper, stir for a couple minutes or until the meat half way done, turn the heat off, sprinkle some oregano, fold in carrot. Scoop the meat on a plate, set aside.

To assemble the rolls:

• Bring a small pot of water to boil, add some olive oil and a pinch of salt. Blanch the 12 leek sheaths for a minute or until the leaves are slightly soften.
• Please take the upper left photo as reference ... lay down two leeks set them side by side, overlap the ones' ends, their width is facing to you, spoon in some pork filling, roll up width-wise against the grain. Place the roll on the squash. Repeat to the rest.
• Drizzle some olive oil all over, bake for 20 minutes. After you take out the baking dish, use the reminding heat to toast the pine nuts, which only take 5 minutes or less.
• To serve: heating up tomato sauce first. Place the pork rolls on a serving plate, roasted butternut squash on the side, spoon some tomato sauce and sprinkle pine nuts on top.

My notes:

If the leeks were rolled along the grain (lengthwise), it's difficult to bite through the fiber, same problem as meat which isn't cut against the grain.

Sorry I didn't photographed the correct roll-ups in the finished dish, it's because I took the photos prior I tasted them.

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