Sausage Stuffed Butternut Squash

Prep Time: 15

Cook Time: 45

Total Time: 1

Servings: people

Sausage stuffed butternut Squash is a comforting, hearty dish that combines roasted butternut squash's natural sweetness with the savory flavors of sausage, spinach, apple, and nuts.

Ingredients

1 butternut squash, medium to large
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 pork sausage with hatch green chiles , or Italian spicy sausage
½ pound ground pork
½ yellow onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 cups baby spinach
1 apple, peeled, cored and chopped
½ teaspoon fresh rosemary, finely chopped
2 tablespoons Brandy
¼ cup almond, chopped
½ cup steamed chestnuts, chopped
⅓ cup dried cranberries
salt and pepper, to taste

US - Metric

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400°F.
With a very sharp knife, slice the butternut in half lengthwise. Scoop the seeds out of the butternut squash with the help of a spoon. Lightly oil the butternut squash and season generously with salt and pepper.
Lay the butternut squash, cut side down on a baking sheet, and bake for 40 to 55 minutes.
In a skillet, add the sausage and the ground pork to a sauté pan over medium heat. Use a spatula to break up the sausage and cook until slightly browned.
Add the onion, garlic, and spinach and stir for 3 to 4 minutes until the spinach is wilted.
Add the apples, rosemary, almond, cranberries, and chestnut and cook until the apples have softened. Add the brandy and cook over medium heat until all the liquid has evaporated. Set the stuffing for butternut squash aside.
When the butternut squash halves are cooked, remove them from the oven, flip them over and remove some of the flesh to make room for the filling. Save the removed flesh to make mashed squash later.
Turn on the broiler. Fill the butternut squash with the apple sausage filling and place it under the broiler, 6 -inches away from the heat source, and broil the filled butternut squash for up to 5 minutes or until golden on the top.

Equipment

Notes

Pro Tips

Use parchment paper or aluminum foil on your baking sheet; this will prevent the butternut from sticking to the bottom of the pan while you roast it.
If the butternut squash is too hard to cut up, I recommend boiling it in hot water for a couple of minutes to soften it out.
Save the scoop of flesh to make butternut squash soup or added it to your mashed potatoes.
The time indicated for baking is based on my oven. Please modify the baking time according to your oven and the altitude of where you live.
When spinach cooks, it looks dark and unappealing. I kept a handful of spinach aside and added it at the last minute to the skillet. It cooked until gently wilted but did not lose its green color. That is a bit more pleasant to the eye, and the little ones will not curl up their noses at it.

Nutrition

Giangi's Kitchen provides nutritional information, but these figures should be considered estimates, as a registered dietician does not calculate them.