On 24 June 1947, American businessman and private pilot Kenneth Arnold took off from Chehalis in Washington state on his way to the city of Yakima. As he had heard about a $5,000 reward offered for any sightings of a US Marine transport plane that had recently crashed in the area of Mount Rainier, Arnold decided to make a small detour towards the massive snowy peak. He made a few passes but failed to spot anything, so he set a course for Yakima and decided to enjoy the still air and the crisp, clear day. Not long after setting his course, he was startled by a flash of sunlight off metal. Thinking there might be a plane nearby that he had somehow failed to notice, he scanned the skies but all he found was a DC-9 a few miles behind him. A few minutes later, he noticed more metallic flashes and realised that they were coming from a series of nine peculiar looking aircraft, travelling at extremely high speed to the north of Mount Rainier. Try as he might, he could not make out the shape of a tail on any of the craft, so he assumed they were probably some sort of new prototype jets and continued his flight. When he finally landed that night, he reported what he had seen and by morning the world’s press were beating a path to his door to hear the first widely publicised flying saucer story. Although the press made up the exact term “flying saucer”, Arnold was quoted describing the craft as “flat like a pie pan”, “shaped like a pie plate”, or “saucer-like”. Within days, reports of flying saucers poured in from around the country and the world. Our obsession with the flying saucer had begun.
The term stayed in use until well into the 1960s, despite the US Government coining the term “unidentified flying object” (UFO) to cover differently shaped objects too, and even today, the flying saucer is shorthand on B-movie posters and in cartoons for alien life arriving. Architects seem to have been particularly inspired by the shape of the flying saucer – how else could you explain the Niteroi Museum of Contemporary Art in Rio; the Futuro prefabricated houses designed by Finnish architect Matti Suuronen in the 1960s as semi-portable ski lodges; the Sanzhi pod houses in Taiwan (these colorful UFO-shaped houses were planned as a seaside destination for vacationing American military staff posted in Asia, but were never finished); the Evoluon conference centre and science museum in Eindhoven; or the spectacular abandoned Buzludzha Monument in Bulgaria. But the flying saucer motif also lives on in designs for lamps, kettles, crockery, hi-fi speakers, sweets… and vegetables.
Yes, you read right – vegetables. Because when you look up pattypan squash on our best friend Google, you will fins it described as having a shape like “a small toy top, or a flying saucer”. And I guess looking at the image above, I can see where they are coming from! It does kind of look like a flattened sphere with scalloped edges – quite unlike most vegetables, and rather pretty, really. They actually go by a variety of names, including the scallop squash, sunburst squash, granny squash, custard marrow, custard squash, cibleme (Cajun French), white squash, or scallopini. But I grew up calling them pattypans, a word that means “a pan for baking a patty”. There seems to be no connection until you learn that the French word for a pattypan is a pâtisson, which means a cake baked in a scalloped mould – so it’s all about the scallops!
These delicious summer squashes come in a variety of colours – yellow, green and white – and are related to courgettes/zucchini, so they are easy to grow and produce prolifically all summer long. Mostly, they are picked when they are about 8cm in diameter and still tender, so you can just pierce, them, steam them and eat them whole. Nick grew them on the allotment this year and although the first few batches of our white pattypans were picked at this side, life got in the way and the next time Nick went, there were these giant white flying saucers waiting to greet him, some of them a good 20cm across! Although they remain just as tasty, allowing them to grow to this size means that the seeds start to harden and need to be scooped out, so you can no longed just steam them whole. One option is to stuff them (which I did very successfully last year) but this year I wanted to try something different. Although the taste is similar to courgettes, the flesh is less watery, so I decided to slice my giant pattypans like bread and to bake them as steaks. The end result is now a firm favourite in our house, and a perfect main course for vegetarian friends not to feel left out while the rest of the party eat their beef steak. Feel free to experiment with different spice blends and cheeses – and if you can’t find giant pattypans, you could also use marrow or aubergine slices.
If you like cooking with a selection of different squashes, check out these other recipes from food bloggers:
- My spaghetti squash, feta and chilli risotto
- Michelle’s kabocha squash with a mushroom leek stuffing
- Margot’s roasted celebration/carnival squash with lemon and parsley
- Kalyn’s Mediterranean spaghetti squash with vegetables and feta
- Sylvie’s roasted delicata squash salad with persimmons and pomegranate
- And three butternut squash recipes: Camilla’s butternut squash & spelt cake; Kavey’s butternut squash, black garlic & blue cheese bake; and Becca’s paneer-stuffed butternut squash
- 1 large pattypan squash (about 20cm in diameter)
- 4 Tbsp olive oil
- your favourite seasoning (I used a Greek seasoning from South Africa that includes oregano, thyme, pepper, rosemary, mustard seeds and salt)
- 80g grated Pecorino (or hard cheese of your choice)
- Pre-heat the oven to 180C.
- Slice the pattypan lengthways into uniform slices between 5 and 10mm thick. Scoop out the seeds and discard.
- Arrange the slices in a single layer on a baking tray lined with a silicone baking mat or aluminium foil. Brush each one with olive oil and season.
- Place in the centre of the oven and bake for 20 minutes, then test if they are soft enough to pierce easily with a knife. (if your slices are on the thick side, they may need longer.) Turn the slices over, brush the other side with olive oil and return to the oven for 10 minutes. Check that they are soft enough to eat.
- If the squash slices are soft enough to eat, top each slice with grated cheese and season. Turn on the grill and return to the oven for a further 5-10 minutes or until the cheese is bubbling and turning golden. Serve hot.