Let's Play Squash

I have recommitted to posting on this blog to share recipes and techniques I have used in my kitchen forever and others I have just discovered. It's a great time of year to cook and to share ideas about cooking so here goes...

Tis the season to take advantage of our region's glorious bounty, especially of locally grown squash. Today Rick and I were at the North Tonawanda Farmers’Market. Carly, our #1 pepper farmer, grand-daughter of the local legend, Elmer Moje, asked us if we could do a test run recipe with the small squashes she harvested just before the first frost. Rick and I already ate the results and we are ready to tell Carly to sell these next Saturday.  Any and all of her squash are so lovely. 

Here’s the recipe I developed today. The sausage addition was Rick's idea. Who knew?

Stuffed Fall Baby Squash

Serves 4 as a small appetizer

6 assorted baby (3 inch diameter) fall squash like Acorn, Sweet Baby, and/or Hubbard

1 link or patty of Hanzlian’s chicken breakfast sausage

2 large cloves of garlic

Vegetable Spray

1 tablespoon of butter

2 heaping tablespoons of grated Pecorino Romano cheese

8 fresh sage leaves chopped fine

½ teaspoon black pepper

¼ teaspoon of sal

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Prepping the squash

1. Wash and dry the squash. Choose four of the squash that have the flattest bottoms and set those aside. I know I think that sounds a little silly too.
2. Peel the 2 squash that you won't be stuffing with a sturdy vegetable peeler. Cut off both ends with a very sharp chef’s knife. Scoop out and discard all of the seeds with a teaspoon.  Cut in half and set aside.
3. Revisit the flat bottomed squashes and cut off the tops as if you were going to carve a pumpkin into a jack’o’lantern.  Using the teaspoon again, remove the seeds, checking twice because in some varieties some seeds are small enough to sneak by you. Place the empty four squash “shells” that will be holding the stuffing into a small square baking pan (8 by 8 or 9 by 9) sprayed with veggie spray.
4. If the bottom of these shells looks seethrough or if there is a hole or two, cut off a piece or two from the peeled squash to cover the weak spots so that the bottom of the “shell” is sturdy and well covered. Cover the ‘shells” with foil and bake in the preheated over at 400 F for 30 minutes.

1. While the squash “shells” roast in the oven chop the squash that you peeled and cut in half earlier into small ½ inch pieces. Spray a foil lined small baking pan with veggie spray and place the chopped squash in the pan, spraying again with veggie spray and sprinkle with a ¼ teaspoon black pepper or to taste. Place on the higher shelf in the oven along with the squash shells, and bake uncovered for 20 minutes total. Yes you will need to set a different timer for this.

Sausage for the Stuffing

1. Peel and chop the onion. Wash, dry and chop the sage and set aside. Peel and mince the garlic. Crumble one the chicken breakfast sausage into a medium sized frying pan over medium heat. Add the onion while the sausage browns, stirring occasionally over medium low heat. Add a pinch of salt and stir some more. Once the onions are tender and translucent, place the sausage and onion mixture in a bowl.

Butter, Sage and Garlic Heaven

1. Melt a tablespoon of butter in the frying pan you used to cook with sausage over low heat, scraping up the brown bits as the butter melts. Add the sage and garlic to the melted and butter and stir well. Take a minute to smell that little bit of heaven. Don’t let this burn. It should only be on the burner for a few minutes.  Don’t walk away from it because garlic that is too brown is not good.
2. Turn off the burner and take the pan off of the stove. Set it aside until the timer for the chopped squash lets you know it is ready to become part of the stuffing.
3. Add the roasted chopped squash to the sausage mixture. Mix in the remaining salt and pepper to test and the cheese and stir well, smashing the roasted squash up as you go to help bind the mixture together. Divide the mixture into four equal parts and stuff it into the squash "shells" after that other timer you set tells you that they are ready. 

4. Cover and bake for 20 minutes with the foil on and roast for another 30 minutes with the cover off.

Serve right out of the oven. You can and should eat these with a spoon.