TIP OF THE DAY: Bread Salad With Butternut Squash

November 4, 2014 at 8:08 am · Filed under Bread-Crackers-Sandwiches, Recipes, Thanksgiving & Fall, Vegetables-Salads-Herbs

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Bread salad with butternut squash. Photo
courtesy GoBoldWithButter.com.

Bread salad is often thought of as a summer dish, marrying lush tomatoes in season with day-old bread, vinaigrette and other seasonings.

But you can turn it into a fall favorite by substituting the tomatoes, now out of season, with butternut squash (or other winter squash), as blogger Karen, from the blog FamilyStyle Food, did in this recipe for GoBoldWithButter.com.

RECIPE: BUTTERNUT SQUASH BREAD SALAD

Ingredients For 6 Side Servings

4 cups butternut squash, peeled and diced (about 4 pounds squash)

1 red onion, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

2 tablespoons sherry or red wine vinegar

1 bunch kale, stemmed and leaves torn into strips

5 cups ciabatta or other Italian bread (from a 1 pound loaf), crusts removed, cut into 1-inch cubes

4 tablespoons Flavored Butter or plain butter, melted

1 cup shredded radicchio

Parmesan cheese for shaving

Preparation

1. PREHEAT the oven to 400°F.

2. TOSS the squash with the onion, olive oil, salt and pepper to taste on a large rimmed baking sheet. Add ¼ cup water. Roast until squash is tender and golden in color, 25 to 30 minutes.

3. POUR the vinegar over the roasted squash and gently toss. Sprinkle the kale leaves over the hot squash and toss again to slightly wilt.

4. PLACE the bread cubes on a rimmed baking sheet and toss with butter. Bake for 10 minutes or until the bread is crisp and toasted.

5. SCRAPE the squash mixture into a large serving bowl. Add the bread and radicchio and toss. Serve with curls of Parmesan.

Find more delicious recipes at GoBoldWithButter.com.

HOW MANY DIFFERENT TYPES OF SQUASH HAVE YOU TRIED?

Check out our delicious Squash Glossary.

WHAT IS BREAD SALAD

Bread salad, like French toast and croutons, is one of those recipes invented by necessity: Poor people needed to get another meal from leftover bread that had gone stale.

Panzanella is a Tuscan-style bread salad made with a loaf of day-old (or older) Italian bread, cubed into large croutons and soaked in vinaigrette to soften it. Chopped salad vegetables are added. The translation we have found for “panzanella” is “bread in a swamp,” the swamp being the water or vinaigrette in which it was soaked.

While today’s recipes are rich in ingredients, the original preparers foraged to pull together vegetables from the garden—cucumber, onion and tomato—and possibly purslane, a salad green that grows wild. Early recipes were heavy on the onions, the cheapest ingredient to pair with the bread. When there wasn’t enough oil to spare, the bread was moistened in water.

Today, this peasant dish is a popular first course in Italy. It doesn’t appear often on menus of U.S.-based Italian restaurants. That’s too bad, because it’s a dish worth having often.

Butternut squash. Photo courtesy Melissas.com.

As long as you have vinaigrette-soaked bread, you can create the salad with almost anything from the pantry or fridge. It’s a great way to use up any leftovers—including beans, cheese, fish, meat and rice—and aging produce.

MORE BREAD SALAD RECIPES