Roasted pumpkin and hazelnut salad recipe
This quintessential Mediterranean salad is a mix of farro, a grain grown in the Italian peninsula since Roman times, roast pumpkin and toasted hazelnut.
This dish is more a description of an idea than an actual recipe. The idea is simple: cook a grain (in this case, farro), add vegetables (raw or cooked, depending on what you have available) then add cheese – and there you have a quintessential Mediterranean meal.
Some other delicious recipes you may love:
- Charred zucchini with labneh and za’atar chilli oil
- An amazing winter salad
- Maggie Beer’s roast chook salad
Farro, an ancient grain from the wheat family, has been grown on the Italian peninsula since Roman times. Farro and other grains were an essential weapon of the masses in the war for survival. Soups, grains and porridges were the food of the poor, often flavoured with scraps of a slaughtered animal or dried beans, and whatever vegetables were at hand. You can still find farro soups with pig’s trotters and pork rinds in some parts of Italy.
RECIPE: Roasted pumpkin and hazelnut salad
Ingredients
- 700-800g butternut pumpkin, peeled and chopped into 3cm cubes
- 3 French shallots, peeled, with the roots left on, then quartered lengthways
- 1-2 teaspoons salt, plus extra for seasoning
- Olive oil, for cooking and drizzling
- 2 rosemary sprigs
- 250g farro
- 1/3 cup hazelnuts
- Zest and juice ½ lemon
- 1 teaspoon white vinegar
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 200g soft cheese, such as robiola or goat’s cheese
- 1½ teaspoons balsamic vinegar
Method
- Preheat your oven to 200C. Put the pumpkin and shallots on a large baking tray with ½ teaspoon of the salt, 2 tablespoons of olive oil and the rosemary sprigs. Toss to coat the vegetables, then arrange them on the tray so they’re not overlapping. Roast for about 30 minutes, or until the shallots are soft with some brown edges. Remove the shallots and, if necessary, roast the pumpkin for another 10-30 minutes, until they’re soft with some brown edges.
- Meanwhile, cook the farro in a saucepan of boiling salted water according to the packet instructions; this usually takes about 30 minutes. Drain the farro, place in a large bowl and toss with about 1 tablespoon olive oil so it doesn’t dry out.
- Toast the hazelnuts in a hot frying pan for just a few minutes until lightly browned and fragrant with an earthy aroma. Remove immediately to a chopping board so the nuts don’t burn; wait until they’re cool enough to handle, then coarsely chop.
- Add the toasted hazelnuts to the farro with the roasted pumpkin and shallot (discard the rosemary twigs). Toss with the lemon zest and juice, white vinegar and another 2 tablespoons olive oil, then season to taste with salt and black pepper.
- Pile the salad onto a shallow platter. Crumble the cheese into large chunks over the salad and drizzle with the balsamic vinegar; of course, another drizzle of olive oil never hurts.
- You can keep this salad covered in the fridge for a couple of days; save the cheese for serving. Serves 3-4
This is an edited extract from Pomegranates & Artichokes by Saghar Setareh.