Roashed squash crostini with roasted garlic goat cheese

Definitely time to make progress on all those butternut squash I bought at last year's farmers market. January is edging into use or lose time. Luckily, I can figure out how to use squash in nearly any course, even appetizers like these.

Roasted squash, arugula and roasted garlic goat cheese tartine
Adapted from abeautifulplate.com (She made hers an open-face sandwich, which is also a lovely idea, but I had a mini baguette on hand and decided to go the appetizer route.)

Ingredients
1 head of garlic, roasted

½ of a medium butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 1-inch cubes
olive oil for drizzling
4-ounce package of goat cheese, at room temperature
1½ cups arugula
1 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1 mini baguette (or half a long one), slice about 3/8-inch thick

Method

Preheat oven to 425. Toss squash cubes with some good olive oil, coarse salt and pepper. Spread on a rimmed baking sheet and roast for about 30 minutes until tender and starting to turn color.

Meanwhile, puree goat cheese and roasted garlic together in a food processor, adding a touch of any leftover oil from roasting the garlic, and a tiny pinch of coarse salt.

After squash is cooked, remove pan from oven. Lower heat to 350. Place bread slices on a baking sheet and bake until crisped, about 5 minutes.

Spread goat cheese-garlic mixture on bread. Pause to consider that at this stage, it's already an amazingly tasty app. Then go ahead, gild the lily by piling on some of the roasted squash cubes on each slice.

Toss arugula, olive oil and vinegar in a bowl. Place some arugula on top of the squash. The original recipe called for a sprinkle of Maldon salt on top, which I'm sure would be very pretty, but any sea salt will do flavorwise.

Rating: This is a very tasty appetizer, and one I'd happily make again. (That goat cheese-garlic mixture is to die for.) Just know that it's best served as a sit-down at the table app where you have ready access to napkins, because your fingers will get messy and you really can't just lick it all off when there are guests present.