Sausage and Apple Stuffed Acorn Squash

Leaving the cottage after Thanksgiving weekend my mom forced upon my sister and I an acorn squash and apples we didn't use for Thanksgiving dinner. On the drive home, I stumbled upon a recipe for Sausage and Apple Stuffed Acorn Squash. How terribly convenient that I found the recipe because I had no idea what to do with the Acorn Squash and all of the apples I had. I showed it to my sister and we decide that would be our get-together meal of the week.

When we made the below recipe, we used turkey sausage in order to be a little healthier. Plus turkey sausage is pretty delicious. However, I would not suggest using turkey sausage for this recipe after making it. Turkey sausage does not brown or crumble quite as well as Italian pork sausage so I find it did not work great for this recipe. Also using spicy Italian sausage would give this recipe a nice little kick of flavour. It was still great with the turkey sausage, I just think it would have been far better with spicy Italian sausage!  We used one large acorn squash and there was plenty of stuffing left over.





Serves 2-4
Ingredients:
- 2 medium (or one large) acorn squash
- 1 chopped white or spanish onion
- 2 chopped stalks of celery
1 tbps of olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp fresh chopped rosemary
3 chopped cloves of garlic
1/2 lb spicy Italian Sausage
1 chopped apple
1 cup of Panko breadcrumbs
1/2 cup parmesan cheese

Directions:
Using a sharp knife cut off the very top and bottom of each squash to create a flat base on each side (being careful not to cut through the centre cavity). Slice the squash in half, scrape out seeds to create individual bowls for the stuffing. Drizzle each squash half with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and roast in a preheated oven at 400˚F (200˚C) for 40-50 minutes - or until fork tender. 

While squash is roasting - in a large fry pan over medium heat - heat oil and add onion, celery, salt, pepper, and rosemary. Cook until onions begin to soften. Add sausage. Break the sausage up until tiny pieces. Cook until sausage is browned on all sides. Add garlic and cook for a few more minutes. Add apple until slightly softened. Finally mix in bread crumbs and parmesan cheese just until incorporated. Remove from heat. 

Once Squash has finished roasting (when you can easily poke it with a fork) remove from oven and fill each with prepared stuffing mixture. Return to oven for 20 minutes - adding a sprinkle of parmesan cheese to the top for the final 5 minutes.