Butternut Panzanella Salad

Butternut Panzanella Salad

The last few weeks my garden has been abundant in cucumbers, and now tomatoes.  Having used cucumbers in just about every imaginable way that I know how, including just slicing and eating them with no embellishment, I gave a bag to one of my friends and neighbors.  Purely selfish…I just couldn’t look at another cucumber…and for this very selfish gesture I was rewarded with a most wonderful Panzanella salad! The next day I gave my friend a call to thank her for bringing me some of her delicious salad, and asked if she would share the recipe.  I knew she would. We happen to share recipes all the time. She’s a very talented cook. On her way to work, the next morning, she dropped it in my mailbox. I made it the next day…Yum!

Panzanella (pahn-zah-NEHL-lah) is a rustic Italian bread salad.  It tastes like bruschetta in a bowl! I’m sure it was a salad of necessity. Italian cooks waste nothing and, this was a way to use up stale bread. It dates back to the 1500’s.  It always includes bread and tomatoes.  Other vegetables that may be included are peppers, cucumbers and onions.  Also lots of garlic, capers, black olives, and anchovies are usually included. The Panzanella salad I’m sharing with you today includes roasted butternut squash.  This is a fabulous salad! Thanks Diane for sharing it with me!

I used rosemary-sea salt focaccia 

Butternut squash ready for the oven

Roasted and ready to use

The veggies cut up for the salad…minus onions and anchovies 

This is an incredible salad…the flavor of the butternut squash melded so well with all the other ingredients.  

Delicious Butternut Panzanella Salad!

Butternut Panzanella Salad
This salad adapted from 

The Organic Seasonal Cookbook

serves 4-6

2 butternut squash
⅔ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 stale ciabatta loaf
2 celery stalks, sliced
1 red onion, halved and thinly sliced
1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut into thin strips
9 oz. halved baby plum tomatoes (I used red and yellow cherry tomatoes)
12 canned anchovy fillets in olive oil, rinsed and chopped (optional)
1 small cucumber
3 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
2 garlic cloves, crushed ( I used one)
1 bunch fresh basil, coarsely torn
sea salt

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Preheat oven to 400〫

Peel the squash, then remove the seeds. Cut the flesh into ¾ inch chunks and spread out on a baking sheet.  Drizzle over a little of the extra virgin olive oil and add a light scattering of sea salt. Roast in the preheated oven for 25 minutes, or until soft and caramelized.

Meanwhile, cut the ciabatta into small chunks, then drizzle with some of the remaining oil and season to taste with sea salt.  Bake in the oven for 10 minutes or until golden and crunchy.

Put the celery, onion, red bell pepper, tomatoes, and anchovies, if using, in a large bowl.  Halve the cucumber lengthwise and scoop out the seeds, then cut into thin slices and add to the bowl.  Add the roasted squash and seeds and the baked ciabatta. Mix the vinegar and garlic with the remaining oil and season to taste salt and pepper.  Pour over the salad, then add the basil and toss thoroughly, making sure that the ciabatta chunks get a good coating of the dressing.  If possible, let stand for an hour or so to enable the flavors to develop and the bread to soften very slightly.