David Rubel's

What's For Dinner?

12/21/05 

Stuffed Acorn Squash

(serves two adults and two children plus leftovers)

This recipe comes from listener Taffy Fantasia, who made it up one day after buying some sausage meat and realizing that she had some acorn squash at home. If your children are small, you can probably get by with half this recipe. But because there is so little work involved in making more, and the squash are so good reheated, you’d be crazy not to make extra.

• 1 demibaguette (or half a baguette)
• 2 Tbs crumbled dried herbs
• 3 acorn squash
• 3/4 c brown sugar
• 1/4 c dried porcini mushrooms
• 1 lb sweet sausage
• 1 medium sweet onion, chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Cut off the ends of the baguette, then cut the remainder into crouton-sized cubes (including the crust) to yield about four cups. Toss the cubes with some olive oil, a little kosher salt, and crumbled dried herbs of your choice. (Thyme and rosemary work well, as do herbs de Provence.) Spread them out on a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan lined with aluminum foil and toast in the oven until crisp, about 5-10 minutes.

3. Cut the acorn squash in half lengthwise and seed them. Then rub each half with olive oil, season with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, and sprinkle with brown sugar, about two tablespoons per squash half. Roast in the oven until just cooked through, about 25-30 minutes.

4. Soak the dried porcinis in two cups of boiling water.

5. In a large skillet over medium heat, brown the sausage meat, breaking up any clumps. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside. Then, in the same skillet, adding a little olive oil if the pan seems dry, saute the sweet onion until golden brown, about 10 minutes.

6. Return the sausage to the skillet, and the toasted baguette cubes, along with the porcini mushrooms and their soaking liquid, which has now become mushroom stock. Simmer until the bread cubes have absorbed the liquid, about a minute. Then, after turning off the flame, cover the pan and let the filling rest for a few minutes while the flavors become balanced.

7. Stuff the squash cavities with the filling and return to the oven long enough for both the squash and filling to become pleasantly hot. You may want to use your broiler for the last couple of minutes to crisp the top.

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Tips

* I turn the baguette into croutons by cutting it lengthwise, then cutting each half lengthwise into quarters, and each quarter lengthwise into eighths. Finally, I take this bread strips (they look like carrot sticks) and cut them along their length into croutons. This way, each crouton has a puff of bread attached to a bit of crust.

* This recipe is easy to cook in stages. The croutons can be made a day or two in advance, and the squash can be cooked during the afternoon and left in the turned-off oven until dinnertime. According to Taffy, the first time she made this dish she put the squash in the oven and cooked them for about fifteen minutes. “Then,” she writes, “my daughter woke up from her nape, so I turned off the oven and took her to the playground. When I came home about and hour and a quarter later, the squash was done, and they were still hot and nicely caramelized.”

* You might want to consider adding a green leafy vegetable to the stuffing. Taffy suggests spinach or kale, which can be added after the onions have browned. (Allow the greens to wilt before adding back the sausage.)

* Taffy’s original recipe included some celery with the sweet onion, which I omitted because I am not partial to celery, and it seems a waste to buy a bunch only to use one stalk and see the rest wilt in my refrigerator.

* Taffy likes to serve her squash with spaetzle that she makes with a little nutmeg and then browns in oil and butter.

* Reheat in a 300-degree oven until heated through, about 45 minutes. Because the outside layers will become quite hot before the core becomes warm, it’s best to let the squash sit in the turned-off oven with the door ajar for ten or fifteen minutes afterward while the temperature equalizes.

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