Caramelized Air-Fryer Acorn Squash

Acorn squash is the squash people pick up at the market with no idea what to do with it. Butternut you can peel and cube and roast on a sheet pan without thinking; spaghetti squash explains itself. Acorn, with its ridged green skin and shallow cup of a halved cavity, sits in the bowl until Thursday and then gets put back. This recipe is the rescue.

The trick is the skin. Acorn squash skin is thin enough to eat once it's cooked — you don't peel it, you just cut wedges and let the air fryer caramelize the cut edges while the skin turns chewy and slightly bitter, which is exactly what you want against the sweet flesh. A tablespoon of olive oil, salt, smoked paprika, a whisper of cinnamon, and fifteen minutes at 380°F: that's the whole recipe. Optional but excellent — a brush of maple syrup in the last two minutes, which lacquers the edges the way a brûlée torch would.

In the photo you see them plated next to wild rice and a piece of something protein-shaped (it was salmon when I shot this), which is one way to eat them. Another is straight off the cutting board, standing at the counter, with your fingers, while you wait for whatever else you're making to be ready. Don't tell anyone.