Farro Salad with Butternut Squash and Radicchio

This is a lovely autumn recipe and looks great on a buffet or served along side a hearty bowl of soup, as I'm doing today. It can easily be made ahead and will taste great even 24 hours after you've prepared it.

Julian's Farro Salad with Squash and Radicchio

This recipe is from Cooks Illustrated and I make it pretty much as they instructed. Today I've added some roasted beets to the mixture, because I had them on hand. You can add similar ingredients as you might have available. 

Ingredients (serves 6-8 adults)

Ingredients

1 butternut squash (about 2 pounds)

1/4  cup extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper
1 1/2 cups whole farro
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons minced shallot
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Pinch cayenne pepper
1 cup chopped radicchio
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 ounces blue cheese, crumbled (1/2 cup)

Instructions

Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 450F degrees. (Do not use convection setting.) Peel, cut and seed the squash into 1/2-inch pieces (yielding about 3 1/2 cups). Chop the shallot, radicchio and fresh parsley. 

Toss squash with 1 tablespoon oil and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Spread squash in even layer on rimmed baking sheet and roast until tender and browned, 20 to 22 minutes. Set baking sheet on a trivet and push squash to 1 side of sheet and let cool.

While squash roasts, rinse the farro and bring 2 quarts water to boil in large saucepan. Stir in farro and 1 tablespoon salt. Return to boil, reduce heat, and simmer until tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Drain well. Spread on empty side of sheet with squash and let cool for 15 minutes.

Whisk remaining 3 tablespoons oil, vinegar, shallot, mustard, cayenne, and 1/4 teaspoon salt together in large bowl. Add cooled farro and squash, radicchio, parsley, and 1/4 cup blue cheese to dressing and toss to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste and transfer to serving bowl. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup blue cheese and serve.