Fall/Winter Oven-Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

I think I was 18 and a freshman in college the first time I had butternut squash soup—that's probably incredibly late given that, I, unlike my parents, have spent my whole life in the South of the United States, where butternut squash is a fall/winter classic—but since then, I’ve understood exactly why this simple soup is such a classic. If you’re a new cook, this is the recipe for you. It’s an easy process with few ingredients, and everyone likes a good butternut squash soup as fall turns to winter, the days get shorter and the nights longer.

Preheat your oven to 400 Fahrenheit on a traditional setting or 375 if you have a convection oven. (In general, drop the temperature 25 degrees from what’s indicated if you have and would like to use a convection setting.)
The most complicated part of the recipe deals with the squash itself. Each butternut squash has two sections, though they may be easier or harder to differentiate depending on the exact shape of each squash. The top of the squash is a solid column of pure squash flesh. Underneath that is a more-or-less spherical bulb that’s mostly hollow. The squash’s seeds are all contained in the hollow part of that bottom sphere. Here’s how I recommend breaking down a squash. The curvature of the squash will smooth out the connecting points between these two parts of the squash, and there isn’t actually a separation between the two—no membranes or anything. It just helps to think of the squash in those two sections. Find the dividing line between the two sections, with the bulb on the left and the pillar on the right. Now, cut straight down to separate the bulb from the pillar. Ignore the pillar for now. Using the cleaver again with the cut side of the bulb pointed at the ceiling, find the diameter and cut straight through it from the cut side to the cutting board. You should now have a left hemisphere of squash, a right hemisphere of squash, and a pillar of the squash off to the side. In turn, take both the left and the right hemispheres and scoop out the seeds that should now be exposed. Once the squash has been deseeded, place it back cut-side-down on the cutting board. Now, deal with the pillar. The pillar is a cylinder. One base is the cut side where it used to be joined to the now-halved bulb, and the other is the very top of the squash where you can probably still see a little bit of stem. Make a cut down parallel to the previous cut, this one a little less than an inch behind the stem, to get rid of it. Now, you should really have a perfect cylinder of squash. Stand it up on one of its bases. Find a diameter, and cut down through it, all the way to the board. You have now cut your squash. Do not peel it. Place it on a roasting tray skin-side up, and coat both the skin and flesh with olive oil. Season with salt and fresh cracked black pepper.

Cut an onion in half from root to stem (that is, not along its equator), peel it, cut off the stem and the root, and remove the outermost layer. Halfway through the roasting of the squash (about 20 minutes), add the onion to the roasting tray with the squash. Continue roasting the squash until a paring knife goes through it without resistance. At that point, use a spoon to scoop out the flesh. Place the flesh of the squash together with the onion in a blender. Liquify. Stream in chicken stock while the blender is still running until the soup is at your desired consistency. Check for seasoning once again. Serve while still hot.