Sausage Stuffed Acorn Squash

I have a few strange food aversions. I hate onions just as much as I did when I was a kid and would meticulously pick them out of my spaghetti sauce. I still don’t like to be in the kitchen if my husband cooks eggs. We have a long standing rule that if he makes eggs he has to clean up anything they have touched. So when I cook a recipe I tend to make a few alterations based on my own preferences.

A few weeks ago I got an Acorn Squash in my Door to Door Organics box, I knew I wanted to do something other than cut it up and roast it like I had done before. So I found this recipe on Pinterest for Stuffed Acorn Squash. Only problem, for me, was that it for mushrooms, celery and onions all foods that I’m just not a fan of. So I made some modifications and was really happy with how it came out.

 

 

Stuffed Acorn Squash Ingredients:

4 squash
8 oz Sweet Italian Sausage
2 apples, diced
1 cup Italian bread crumbs
1/2 cup Parmigiano reggiano cheese
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/4 salt, pepper sage
1 clove garlic

 

Stuffed Acorn Squash

1. Preheat oven to 400
2. Cut Squash in half and remove seeds, brush inside of squash with EVOO. Place on cookie sheet and bake for 50 minutes.
3. Put 2 TBSP EVOO in pan, add 1 clove garlic and saute.
4. Cut up sausage and brown in pan, breaking it apart with spatula. Once browned remove from pan.
5. Add Apples to the pan and cook for about 2 minutes. 
6. Return sausage to pan, add bread crumbs, cheese, egg, salt, pepper and sage. 
7. Remove from heat and stir to combine.
8. Remove squash from oven and place sausage apple mixture in squash.
9. Place stuffed squash in oven and roast for 25 minutes.

The sweetness of the squash and apples, pairs nicely with the sausage. I made this again and because I’m not always the most prepared chef I didn’t have enough apples. But I did have pears on hand so I added a pear to the mix and it came out really good. Also I only had 1 acorn squash so I had lots of extra stuffing which I cooked up and then ate as a breakfast dish, it was a really yummy breakfast.

Adapted from Prevention RD

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