Fall recipe: Sausage stuffed acorn squash

I never thought of myself as a 'seasonal eater' but I seem to crave certain foods during their featured season, and relatedly have been eating up all the squash I can get my hands on this fall. I tried spaghetti squash and found it to be delicious sauteed with some garlic and olive oil.

A tried-and-true recipe I make each autumn is this sausage stuffed acorn squash. The recipe came from my mother's good childhood friend, and my photo-copy of the original hand-typed recipe card is already tattered from use. The combination of the slightly sweet acorn squash with savory sausage and stuffing results in a comforting and delicious meal that even my picky eaters will devour.

You will start with preparing the squash in the oven, and meanwhile prepare the sausage and stuffing stove-top. The filling will be added to the cooked squash and baked together for about 30 minutes.

If you're unfamiliar, an acorn squash looks like this:

Start off by preheating your oven to 400 degrees (fahrenheit). Cut your squash in half and remove the seeds. I found an ice cream scoop to be helpful in getting all the seeds out.

Fill a rimmed baking pan with 1/2 inch of water and place the cut squash, face down, into the water. Bake in the heated oven for about 30 minutes or until the squash is fork-tender. Reduce the oven temperature to 375 degrees once the squash are removed.

Meanwhile, mash 1/2 pound bulk pork sausage (or in my case, chicken sausage) in a frying pan with some olive oil. When using chicken sausage, I removed the casings and then mashed with a spatula.

The chicken sausage I used.

Fry until the sausage is cooked but not yet brown. Drain off the fat (there was none with chicken sausage), and then add 1/2 small onion, diced, 3/4 cup dry bread crumbs, 1/4 cup water, a 1/2 teaspoon salt and dash of pepper to the mix.

Before filling, I slice off the stems or ends of the squash to create a flat surface, then flip over to create the 'bowl.' Fill the centers of each squash half with the sausage and stuffing mixture. Bake the stuffed squash in the 375 degree oven for approximately 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

Sausage Stuffed Acorn Squash
Recipe adapted from original by: Sarah Jo
Serves: 4
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour

2 acorn squash
1/2 pound bulk pork sausage or chicken sausage
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 small onion, diced
3/4 cup soft bread crumbs (I used dried)
1/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 dash pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut squash in half and remove seeds. Place face-down in 1/2 inch of water and bake for 30 minutes or until the squash is fork-tender. Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees.

Mash sausage with fork. Fry in olive oil until cooked but not yet brown. Drain off fat. Add onion, bread crumbs, and salt and pepper to pan. Fill centers of squash with sausage and stuffing mixture.

Bake at 375 degrees uncovered for 30 minutes.


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