Sausage -Stuffed Acorn Squash
Tony
Roasted acorn squash, crammed full of sausage and flavor!
Prep Time 20 minutes mins
Cook Time 40 minutes mins
Total Time 1 hour hr
- 2 each Acorn squash
- 1 pound Breakfast sausage
- 1 each Sweet yellow onion
- 1 each Honey Crisp apple the best apple
- 4 cloves Garlic
- 1 tbsp Fresh sage leaves, chopped
- 1 tsp fresh thyme, chopped
- 1½ cups Parmigiano Reggiano, freshly shredded
- Extra virgin olive oil for coating the squash
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- Spicy Maple Syrup (Recipe in link above)
Preheat oven or pellet smoker to 400 degrees
Cut your squash in half and open it up. Before you cut it in half, it is helpful to cut a small piece off of what will become the “bottom” of the half. This will provide a flat area on the squash for it to sit on and prevent it from rolling around as you move them to the oven. (if you have question on how to do this, go watch my video at https://www.youtube.com/@oakandblade)
Now that the squash is opened up, use a spoon to remove all of the seeds and fibers from the inner cavity of the squash.
Brush the squash halves with the extra virgin olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and place in the preheated oven/pellet smoker for about 40 minutes, or until “fork tender” (a fork can easily pierce the flesh of the squash). Once cooked through, remove from oven and allow to rest and cool. Decrease the oven heat to 375 degrees.
While the squash is roasting you can begin to make the stuffing.
Prep the onion, apple, garlic and herbs. Onion can be cut in half, from root to tip and then sliced into ¼ inch slices. The apple should be diced into roughly ¼ inch cubes. Mince the garlic and chop the herbs.
Cook the sausage in a skillet, crumbling and browning it nicely. Remove from the skillet once cooking is complete.
Add the onions to the skillet and cook in the rendered sausage fat. Season with salt. Cook the onions until they begin to brown and caramelize a bit.
Add the garlic and cook for another minute.
Add the apple and herbs, shut off the heat, and stir to mix.
Now that the squash has finished cooking and cooled slightly, use a spoon to remove about half of the flesh from the squash, leaving about ¼ inch all around the inside of the skin of the squash. Add the removed squash to the onion and apple mixture.
Now add the cooked sausage and about half of the Parmigiano Reggiano to the onion and apple mixture. Stir to combine all of the stuffing ingredients.
Add the stuffing mixture to the remaining squash skins and place them back in the 375 degree oven for about 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes, remove the squash from the oven and top with remaining Parmigiano Reggiano while still hot, to allow it to melt. (pop it back in the oven for a minute or two if it doesn’t want to fully melt)
Drizzle the squash with the Hot Maple Syrup and DIG IN!