Couscous with Crispy Pancetta and Butternut Squash

Very flavorful dish! This "skillet supper" is billed as a dinner that takes only 30 minutes. But I cannot peel and dice a winter squash and slice shallots and dice a serrano pepper and mince garlic and dice ham in just 10 minutes! The total time was more like 75 minutes. If you started with peeled diced squash, though, the 30 minutes might be possible.

This dish is mostly squash. But it also contains shallots and a hot pepper (both very subtle), and Israeli Couscous. I had purchased Israeli Couscous a year ago, for the Morocco challenge, but it went unused for a year. This is a very decent way to use it.

The recipe calls for Pancetta - which my family loves - but I substituted leftover ham. The pancetta/ham is diced and cooked to crispy, then used as a garnish.

The addition of cumin gave contributed to the middle east character of this dish. All four of us (2 teenagers) enjoyed it and rated it a solid 4. Husband said if I'd actually used pancetta, it could be a 5.

Note that the recipe says serves 3 - 4. This served the four of us (and we were hungry) with leftovers.