Apple and Sausage Stuffed Acorn Squash

Fall Comfort Food at it's best. Combining, fall fruits, flavorful herb sausage make this a wonderful stuffing for a hearty acorn squash. Serve this with a nice crisp salad with a warm blue cheese vinaigrette and it is an amazing dinner.

• Ready In: 1 hr 15 mins
• Serves: 4
• Yields: 4 Squash halves

Ingredients

• Squash

• 2  acorn squash, cut in half and seeds removed
• 2  teaspoons olive oil, to brush on
• 1  tablespoon kosher salt
• 1  teaspoon ground black pepper

• Filling

• 1⁄2 lb turkey sausage (you can get so many flavors these days right in your grocery store. I prefer a turkey with sage or h)
• 1⁄2 cup celery, fine chopped
• 2  shallots, minced medium size (you can also use a small onion)
• 1  cup granny smith apple, chopped fine
• 1⁄2 cup dried cranberries
• 1  cup  breadcrumbs, fresh (you can use dried but fresh is so much better)
• 4  tablespoons  apple jelly
• 1  tablespoon fresh sage (1/2 teaspoon dried sage)
• 2  tablespoons brown sugar
• 1  teaspoon kosher salt
• 1⁄2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1  teaspoon olive oil
• 1⁄2 cup pecans, diced fine

Directions

1. Squash -- Cut squash in half, scoop out seeds. Brush with olive oil, salt and pepper and place cut side down on a cookie or baking sheet lined with parchment paper or aluminum foil and bake at 400 for about 20-30 minutes until tender. Remove from the oven and cover with foil, to slightly cool, but still keep warm.
2. Filling -- Remove the casing from the sausage, add 1 teaspoon olive oil to a medium size saucepan and cook the sausage breaking it up as it cooks. Drain sausage on paper towel. Keep 1 teaspoon of the drippings and saute the celery, shallot, apple, cranberries and cook for 4-5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir the sausage back in, bread crumbs, seasoning, and sugar and mix well.
3. Stuff -- Now that the squash has cooled a bit so you can handle it, scoop out most of the center (not all. Definitely keep some to make a base for the filling, you just want to make some room for the filling) and mix the extra squash with the sausage mixture. Now stuff the squash. Fill the squash generously with the stuffing mix - don't be afraid to pile it up. Top each squash with 1 tablespoon of the apple jelly and pecans.
4. Baking -- Cook at 350 about 25 minutes until nice and toasty. Since the stuffing and squash are already cooked, you are just finishing and heating every thing back up.
5. Just serve with a fresh salad as I said with a warm blue cheese vinaigrette and a slice of my beer bread. Rich hearty flavors and still pretty healthy - all at the same time. Still wonderful comfort food for a great Fall evening.