Panzanella Salad With a New Twist

So today the weather reached 98 and I wanted to do something cool and simple.  One of Felicia's friends from school gave us a butternut squash from her garden.  So I decided to come up with this awesome new twist on a classic Italian salad.  I hope you enjoy as much as Felicia and I did for lunch today.



Ingredients

1 Butternut Squash
1/2 Red Onion
1 Heirloom Tomato
1 Golden Delicous Apple
5 Slices of Fresh Mozzarella
14 Fresh Basil Leaves
4 Slices of Italian Bread
4 TBL Olive Oil
2 TBL Balsamic Vinegar
Salt
Ground Pepper
1 TSP Granulated Garlic
1 TSP Dried Basil
1/2 TSP Dried Oregano

Roasting Squash

1. Pre-heat oven to 425
2. Slice top and bottom off of the squash.  Stand squash up, trim sides of as thin as you can so you don't waste the meat.  When Skin is off, cut in half and spoon out the seeds.  Dice squash in bite size amounts.
3. Lay squash on a roasting pan or baking sheet.  Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper.
4. Place in oven for a good 30-35 minutes
5. Take out of oven and let cool

Toasting Croutons

1. Grab bread and slice length wise twice, turn bread and slice into bite size amounts.
2. Grab a small roasting pan or a saute pan you can place in the oven.
3. Drizzle with some olive oil.
4. Take your dry ingredients (granulated garlic, basil and oregano) and spread all over the bread.  
5. Toss together with your hands and place these wonderful ingredients in the oven
6. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.
7. Take out of oven and let cool.

Other Great Ingredients Diced Up

1. OK grab a big salad bowl
2. Start dicing up your ingredients in bite size amounts, your apple, tomato, onion and mozzarella cheese.  Add all to the bowl.
3. Take your basil and stack on top of each other and cut from the tip of the leaves down to the steam.  Slice thin, this is called a julienne cut.  Place in bowl.
4.  Grab your squash and toasted bread and add to the bowl.
5. Drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and salt to taste and ground pepper.
6. Toss your salad ( no pun intended)
7. Serve and enjoy these wonderful flavors popping in your mouth.

This was a great Summer salad with a twist of fall.  I hope you enjoy this as much as we did today and this will also go great with Chardonnay.  Have a wonderful day.  

Sincerely:

Chef Molatore