Roasted Bruschetta Pattypan Squash

This roasted bruschetta pattypan squash - filled with ripe tomatoes, garlic and basil splashed with balsamic vinegar - makes a delicious and gorgeous main course for any special occasion. Added bonus: Even your vegetarian and vegan family and friends can enjoy it!

I can’t tell you how excited I was when I came across two lovely large pattypan squash grown by a local farmer. I didn’t even know they grew that big! Prior to these, the pattypans of my experience were either tiny baby squash or more typically, they were about four or five inches across. 

Special squash deserves to be made into a special dish. I couldn’t bring myself to cut it up and spoil its beauty. Stuffing seemed to be the best answer. With the tomatoes so wonderful and ripe, I wanted them to shine too. 

Except for the chopped squash, this stuffing is exactly the same topping I put on toasted baguette slices for our family favorite classic bruschetta, hence the title. The wonderful bruschetta filling infuses the squash with great flavor as it roasts to golden perfection. 

Roasted Bruschetta Pattypan Squash

If you can’t find large pattypan squash, use whatever squash is your favorite. Don’t worry about the weight of your tomatoes. A little more or less won’t really matter. 

Ingredients

1 large pattypan or scallop squash (mine weighed 1 lb 9 oz or 650g)

For the filling: 

1 large clove garlic

4 small tomatoes (mine weighted about 9 oz or 260g)

7-8 leaves fresh basil, plus extra for garnish, if desired

2 tablespoons olive oil, plus a little extra for the baking pan

1 tablespoon best quality balsamic vinegar

1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Optional to serve: 

Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Method

Cut the top off of the squash. Use a spoon to scrape the seeds and fibers out of the middle.

Use a sharp knife to trim off the squash to enlarge the cavity. Chop the squash bits you trim off and set them aside. We’ll add these to the bruschetta filling.

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C. Lightly grease a baking pan or iron skillet. 

Remove the cores from the tomatoes and chop them into small pieces. Put a couple of paper towels on your cutting board to catch the juice that will inevitably pour off. Otherwise you’ll find it dripping off the work surface onto your feet. Not that that has ever happened to me. 

Mince the garlic. Roll the basil leaves together and slice them thinly into strips. Then chop the rolled slices roughly. 

Put the tomatoes, chopped squash bits, garlic and basil into a small mixing bowl. 

Add in the olive oil, vinegar, salt and several good grinds of black peppers. Stir well to combine. 

Spoon the filling into the pattypan squash.

Roast in your preheated oven for 55-60 minutes or until the squash is cooked through. 

Remove from the oven. Sprinkle with basil strips. 

Cut the squash into quarters to serve and let your guests add grated Parmesan, as desired. 

Enjoy! 

Happy Sunday FunDay, where we share recipes your families will love every Sunday. Today our theme is Squash it to me! - perfect for the season. Many thanks to our host, Rebekah of Making Miracles. 

• Autumn Harvest Fall Soup by Our Good Life
• Beef and Butternut Squash Chili by Making Miracles
• Couscous-Stuffed Red Kuri Squash by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Creamy Pumpkin Soup with Yogurt by Cooking With Carlee
• Curried Squash Soup by Palatable Pastime
• Lal Bhoplyache Bharit /Red Pumpkin Raita by Sneha's Recipe
• Roasted Bruschetta Pattypan Squash by Food Lust People Love
• Seared Scallops with Spaghetti Squash by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Spaghetti Squash 2 Ways by Sid's Sea Palm Cooking

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Rolled Pepperoni Pizza Loaf #BreadBakers

A simple pizza dough is transformed into a rolled pepperoni pizza loaf, with mozzarella cheese, sun-dried tomatoes and garlic, freshly baked and ready to slice and serve.

You’d have to have been reading here a long time (more than seven years! Anybody?) to know my inspiration for this stuffed bread loaf. Madam Wong’s pizza rolls look like cinnamon rolls, but they are rolled up with rice tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese. They are one of my favorite things in the whole wide world.

I’ve long thought it would be fun to bake a similar bread in a loaf shape instead of rolls so the filling would make a pretty spiral when it was sliced. Rather than a wet sauce, this time I’ve used soft sun-dried tomatoes and added pepperoni because, well, pepperoni is fabulous.

Rolled Pepperoni Pizza Loaf

If you don’t have fresh oregano, by all means substitute dried. Just a light sprinkle – perhaps a 1/2 teaspoon will do. 

Ingredients

For the dough:

3/4 cup or 180ml lukewarm water (not hot)

1 teaspoon active-dry yeast

1/4 teaspoon sugar

2 cups or 250g strong bread flour, plus more if needed

1 teaspoon salt

Drizzle olive oil for the dough bowl

For the filling:

3 oz or 85g sliced pepperoni

5 oz or 142g mozzarella cheese, shredded 

1/4 cup, firmly packed, or 45g soft (ready to eat) sun-dried tomatoes

2-3 sprigs fresh oregano

1 clove garlic, finely minced 

For baking:

1 egg, beaten

1 oz or 28g freshly grated Parmesan

Method

Put the yeast and sugar in a bowl. Pour in the warm water and give it a stir. Set aside for a few minutes. It should start to get foamy on top. 

In a large bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer, whisk the flour and salt together. Pour in the yeast mixture and mix well to form a soft dough.

Using the dough hook on the stand mixer, or kneading by hand against the counter, knead the dough on  until it forms a smooth, slightly tacky ball that springs back when you poke it, 5 to 8 minutes. If the dough sticks to the bowl or your hands, add a tablespoon of flour at a time until it’s easier to work with.

Avoid adding too much flour if possible. I ended up adding two tablespoons this time. This is the sort of thing that can change with your flour and the humidity in the air. 

If you're planning to make the pepperoni pizza loaf today, then give the dough a rise. Clean out the mixing bowl, coat it with a little oil, and transfer the dough back inside. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp kitchen towel and let the dough rise until doubled in size, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

 

Alternatively, you can store the dough in the fridge and make the stuffed loaf the next day. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate. 

Take the dough out of the refrigerator about half an hour before you are ready to bake.

Line a 9x5 in or 23x13cm loaf pan with baking parchment. 

Pull the leaves off of your sprigs of oregano and cut the sun-dried tomatoes into skinny slices. Mix them both together with the mozzarella and garlic. 

Roll out the pizza dough into a rectangle, about 10x14 in or 25x35cm. 

Cover it almost to the sides with the cheese mixture, then the pepperoni. 

Roll up from the short side. The pepperoni don’t really roll up well but do your best. Tuck the sides over slightly to contain the filling.

 Transfer the roll to your prepared loaf pan, seam side down. 

Cover lightly with a cling film and leave to rise in a warm place for about 45 minutes. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat your oven to 375°F or 190°C. Brush the beaten egg over the top of the loaf.

 Sprinkle on the Parmesan cheese. 

Bake in your preheated oven at for 20 to 25 minutes or until the top and sides are golden. Let the loaf cool on a wire rack before slicing it to serve. 

Enjoy!

This month my Bread Baker friends are sharing recipes for stuffed breads. Check them out below! Many thanks to our host Renu of Cook with Renu.

• Coconut Buns by Magical Ingredients
• Callaloo Loaf by Passion Kneaded
• Double Cheese Fatayers by Ambrosia
• Meatball Stromboli by Palatable Pastime
• Pepperoni Rolls by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Ricotta Calzones with Spinach and Sausage by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Rolled Pepperoni Pizza Loaf by Food Lust People Love
• Sourdough Custard buns by Zesty South Indian Kitchen
• Stuffed Potato Kulcha by Sneha's Recipe
• Sweet Potato and Apple Braid by What Smells So Good?
• Taco Tuesday Calzone by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Whole Wheat Vegetarian Calzones by Cook with Renu

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all our lovely bread by following our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated after each event on the #BreadBakers home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

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Overnight Yeasted Cheese Scones

These overnight yeasted cheese scones have cheese inside and on top. They make a delightful breakfast or snack or use them as sandwich bread. 

A couple of months ago in this very group, you might recall that we posted recipes from Poland. I made a very tasty potato pie called baba kartoflana in Polish. While I was researching for that recipe, I somehow came across these overnight, yeasted cheese scones from Hungary and made a note for later. 

According to the original author, these are called pogácsa in Hungarian and they are a popular bite-size snack served at the beginning of parties or get-togethers. Makes sense because they would be wonderful accompaniments to cocktails. Pogácsa are always made with a yeast dough. 

Since we aren’t really doing parties these days, I made mine normal scone/biscuit size. They are perfect on their own, especially warm. After eating one scone for breakfast plain, my husband also made sandwiches with a couple for lunch. He highly recommends salami and mustard on these. I think smoked ham would also be delightful. 

Overnight Yeasted Cheese Scones

In the original recipe, as mentioned above, a much smaller cookie cutter is used so that the scones are bite-sized. They also have half the cheese. In our house more cheese is always a good thing so I’ve doubled the cheese and put some in the dough and on top. 

Ingredients
2 tablespoons lukewarm milk
1 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon sugar
2 cups or 250g flour
1/2 cup or 113g butter
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg, separated into yolk and white
1/3 cup or 75g sour cream
3 1/2 oz or 100g extra sharp cheddar cheese, grated and divided

Method
Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the lukewarm milk. Set aside. 

Whisk the flour and salt together into a large bowl. Add the cubed butter and use a pastry blender to cut it into the flour. 

Add in half of the grated cheese and mix well. 

Make a hollow in the flour and pour in milk/yeast mixture, followed by the egg yolk and sour cream. 

Use a wooden spoon (then a clean hand) to mix the ingredients together. At first it looks too dry but just keep at it and shortly, it comes together into a stiff dough. Knead until smooth. 

Press the dough into a fat disk and cover it with cling film. Chill overnight in the refrigerator. 

The next day, when you are ready to bake, remove the dough from the refrigerator so it can warm up slightly.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone liner and preheat your oven to 428°F or 220°C. Beat the egg white to loosen it, adding a 1/2 teaspoon of water.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough until it is about 3/4 in or 2 cm thick. Use a 3 in or 7.5cm cm cookie cutter to cut out the scones.

Briefly knead together any leftover dough and roll it out again to cut more scones. 

Transfer all of the scones to the prepared baking sheet.

Brush the tops with the beaten egg white. 

Then top them with the other half of the grated cheese. 

Bake the scones in your preheated oven for about 20 minutes or until they are golden brown. Cool them on a wire rack for a few minutes before serving. 

Enjoy! 

Today's Baking Bloggers theme is yeast breads. Check out all the lovely recipes my blogger friends are sharing. Many thanks to our host, Sue of Palatable Pastime. 

• Bagels from Sneha's Recipe
• Connie's Swedish Rye from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Crunchy Herbed Whole Wheat Breadsticks from Cook with Renu
• Crusty No-Knead Oatmeal Bread from Making Miracles
• Hearty Slow Fermented Rustic Bread from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Hveteboller (Norwegian Cardamom Buns) from Tara's Multicultural Table
• Overnight Yeasted Cheese Scones from Food Lust People Love
• Pizza Focaccia from Palatable Pastime
• Sourdough Rolls from A Day in the Life on the Farm

Baking Bloggers is a friendly group of food bloggers who vote on a shared theme and then post recipes to fit that theme one the second Monday of each month. If you are a food blogger interested in joining in, inquire at our Baking Bloggers Facebook group. We'd be honored if you would join us in our baking adventures.

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