By Lidey Heuck
- Total Time
- 1 hour 10 minutes
- Rating
- 5(724)
- Notes
- Read community notes
This recipe dresses up the humble acorn squash for a dinner that’s a hearty and comforting celebration of fall flavors. Feel free to tweak the recipe to use what you have on hand: Any leftover rice or cooked grains will work, along with spinach or other sturdy greens in place of the kale. Though this is not a recipe for rushed weeknights, the squash can be assembled completely in advance and finished in the oven just before serving. For best results, use medium squash, and remove the stem for easier cutting.
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Ingredients
Yield:4 servings
- 2medium acorn squash (about 2 pounds each)
- Olive oil, as needed
- Kosher salt and black pepper
- ¼cup raw hazelnuts, for serving (optional)
- 1cup chopped shallots (about 4 shallots)
- ¼packed cup chopped fresh sage leaves
- 3garlic cloves, minced
- 1cup lightly packed chopped lacinato or curly kale leaves
- 1pound bulk hot Italian pork sausage
- Generous pinch of ground nutmeg
- ½cup dry white wine, such as sauvignon blanc
- 1cup cooked white or brown rice, or farro
- ⅓cup grated Parmesan
- Chopped fresh parsley, for serving (optional)
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)
914 calories; 49 grams fat; 13 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 24 grams monounsaturated fat; 8 grams polyunsaturated fat; 90 grams carbohydrates; 13 grams dietary fiber; 5 grams sugars; 32 grams protein; 1705 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
Step
1
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Carefully halve cut each squash in half through the stem, removing the stem if still attached. Scoop out and discard the seeds, and place the squash halves on a sheet pan, cut-side up. (You may want to trim the bottom of the squash halves slightly so they don’t wobble on the pan.) Brush each squash generously with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast until the flesh is very tender when pierced with a knife, 35 to 40 minutes.
Step
2
Meanwhile, if using the hazelnuts, heat a large skillet slicked with olive oil over medium. Add the hazelnuts and toast, tossing often, until the skins begin to split and the nuts are fragrant, about 5 minutes. Transfer the nuts to a cutting board to cool. Once cooled, roll the nuts around on the board with the palm of your hand to remove some of the skins. Discard the skins, coarsely chop the nuts, sprinkle lightly with salt, then set aside.
Step
3
Add 2 tablespoons olive oil to the skillet and heat over medium-low. Add the shallots and cook for 3 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until translucent. Add the sage and garlic and cook for 1 minute, stirring often, until the garlic is fragrant. Add the kale and cook, tossing, just until it begins to wilt.
Step
4
Raise the heat to medium-high and add the sausage, nutmeg, 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon pepper. Cook, crumbling the sausage with a wooden spoon as it cooks, until no longer pink, about 6 minutes. Add the wine and cook, scraping any browned bits from the bottom of the pan, until about half the liquid has evaporated. Remove the skillet from the heat.
Step
5
Using a small spoon, gently scrape about 3 heaping tablespoons of flesh from the cavity of each squash (you should have about 1 cup altogether) and add it to the sausage, along with the rice and Parmesan. Mix thoroughly until combined, breaking up any chunks of squash.
Step
6
Divide the sausage mixture among the squash halves, filling each one to the top. (Depending on the size of the squash cavities, you may need to slightly heap the filling.) Return the sheet pan to the oven to roast for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the filling is heated through and starting to brown on top.
Step
7
Sprinkle with chopped hazelnuts and parsley, if using, and serve hot.
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724
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Cooking Notes
Peter
Great recipe! Some recommend adjustments: 1) Farro is "WOW!"; Rice is "meh." Undercook farro by 3-5 min in a 1:3 stock:water ratio. In step 4, add undercooked farro with wine to finish farro for 3-5 min. This adds to farro's nuttiness, but doesn't overpower it, and helps reduce the liquid faster. 2) Step 5, scrape out more squash and mix with filling. Sweetness juxtaposes with sausage heat and fennel is great. 3) Also add nuts in step 5. Nuts will be warm and add crunch to texture.
Ryan
Tasted even better the next day. I omitted the hazelnuts due to a food allergy, and found that the stuffing was lacking some sweetness as a result. When I make this again, I may add some honey or maple syrup to balance the savory shallots, sausage, and sage. Like another commenter, I also went heavy on the kale, and it could have used even more!I'd recommend prepping the filling beforehand, ended up a bit messy with all of the components cooking at the same time.
Mary-Beth Fafard
I adapted the recipe for items on hand: used ground turkey, spinach, dried sage, hot pepper flakes, and onions. Delicious and I found that following the basic steps allowed for adaptation. Hot and tasty on a cold winter day.
GM
Very good but next time I may try with sweet Italian sausage instead of hot. I love hot in general but think sweet would have balanced this dish better.
Sarah B
I used beyond meat sausage to make this vegetarian and it was a delicious recipe.
Olivia
Squash took 15 minutes longer to cook. Next time pierce all over with a fork to let olive oil seep in and speed up the process.
Carol Bradford
I used Delicata squash, Swiss chard, onions, link sweet Italian sausage + red pepper flakes, dried sage, dry vermouth and farro. The squash were tiny so I just filled them and set them on top of the extra filling. Grated the Parmesan over the dish. Finishing up in the oven now. It smells delicious. Will garnish with toasted hazelnuts.
Paul
Flavorful and attractive. Some adjustments made to accommodate ingredients on hand: decorative gourd squash (like Buttercup) used, breakfast sausage with crushed red pepper added for heat, a mix of chopped almonds and walnuts for the garnish. We mixed all of the squash flesh with the sausage/chard mixture. Leftovers were used to jazz up a squash soup. All good.
Mary C
I roasted a very large butternut squash so I did what others suggested, mixed and baked the whole thing in the skillet that I cooked the sausage and kale in. I didn’t measure precisely. I used a whole bunch of lacinato kale, and the whole bag of Trader Joe’s farro. The chewiness of the farro was wonderful. I didn’t feel like grating Parmesan so I dotted with goat cheese instead. The end result was delicious, even though cleanup took awhile. Next time I might add more nutmeg as it got lost.
la.
this was so delicious! we used quinoa instead of rice, which worked great with the dish. also we used ground turkey that we seasoned ourselves and made it neither sweet nor spicy but did use italian sausage flavor profile. the sweetness of the squash was plenty for the dish with the squash we cooked, but winter squash can vary so widely even within same variety so ymmv. a winner and not too much prep with two of us working on it.
Elise
Very tasty but a bear to prep since I subbed some ingredients. I took the suggestion of one reviewer and put it in a baking pan. I precooked three types of squash since I had only one acorn squash. Not sure if I would make again due to labor intensity.
Lauren
Save and toast the seeds!!!!
Julieta L.
Beautiful recipe! I ended up adding extra kale, farro and all the squash. Also added in sun-dried tomatoes and Mt. Vikos Feta cheese. Chef’s kiss! Yum yum
Elizabeth
This was super tasty! I didn’t have hazelnuts so I topped it with chopped pecans. Otherwise, followed recipe as written. Like others, I think farro is the way to go here.
AJ
Delicious! I agree with others who say it could use a bit more sweetness and I will try sweet Italian sausage next time. The maple syrup suggestion also sounds good. I used delicata squash and roasted it cut side down.
AJ
I used delicata squash cooked about the same amount of time, cut side down for a nice browning. Try using sweet Italian sausage for a sweeter, less salty balance.
Thad
A tasty way to eat my acorn squash. I made half vegetarian for my spouse, adding in morning star breakfast sausage (very good). Of my meaty portion, I think one could reduce the amount of sausage by half and it would be just as good; I'll do that next time. Substituted pecans for hazelnuts.
karlyn
Made this recipe per the instructions EXCEPT we don’t eat pork we replaced it with a mix of both hot and sweet ground turkey. This dish was sooo flavorful and tasty. Excited to make it again.
katee13
Use kabocha squash
Darla
Richly flavorful! To simplify, skip stuffing squash halves - combine everything in a baking dish, top with parmesan and hazelnuts, and bake for about 15 minutes. I was lucky to have stock from chanterelles I had recently foraged near home, so used that to cook farro per Peter's recommendation. More kale and more shallots than recipe called for sure didn't hurt!
Kate
Made this with Impossible breakfast sausages (1 pack, 12.5 oz) and porcini broth instead of wine; otherwise followed the recipe as written. Delicious and impressive.
CN
Made it with farro and extra spinach. Could add some cooked lentils to the sausage mixture, if you want. Really good recipe!
Rachel
Truly so delicious! I used sweet Italian sausage (plus red pepper flakes) because that’s all the store had, and used spinach because that’s what I had and it turned out incredible.
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