What do you get when you roast butternut squash with sweet dates and salty pancetta?
A beautiful thing.
I’ve taken a pretty long break from butternut squash over the last couple months. While making my way through the grocery store this weekend, trying to move as fast as I could so I could get home and hang out with this guy, I grabbed a nice looking squash and decided I would figure out what to do with it later.
Butternut squash gets a bad reputation because it’s often served bland and under seasoned. But really, it takes minimal effort to make this vegetable a dinner-party worthy side dish. And this time of year, roasting vegetables is the only natural thing to do.
If you’re just going for the basics, get the squash nicely browned and add a healthy dose of salt. To make things more interesting though, I threw in some dates to add sweetness, some thyme to bring out a woody flavor, and then some pancetta to give the dish a little fat and saltiness.
It’s elegant without being complicated and looks beautiful in a serving dish. I paired this with some pork chops, but feel free to get more creative.
- 1 large butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1 inch cubes
- 6 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
- 3 tablespoons fresh thyme
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 10 dates, quartered
- ½ cup pancetta, cubed
- Preheat oven to 425.
- Toss butternut squash, garlic, thyme, and salt in a large bowl with olive oil. Spread onto a baking dish in a single layer. Bake for 40 minutes, turning occasionally, until squash is browned and tender.
- Add dates and pancetta to baking dish and mix in with squash. Roast for an additional 12 minutes, until pancetta is crispy.
[…] hit of the dinner: butternut squash with pancetta and dates. Rating […]
writes Theo's First Thanksgiving - Things I Made Today