Stuffed Acorn Squash with Caramelized Onion, Sausage, Apple and Parmesan Cheese

 Serves 6 - About 1 1/2 hours

Yum
This was a recipe inspired by my friend Emily. Full of fall flavors, but not limited to fall, these Acorn Squash are stuffed with lots of hot pork sausage (not actually very hot) celery, caramelized onions, garlic, apples and flavored with thyme, rosemary and sage. There's some time involved in making this, but really it's all in assembly and prep and all that can be done in advance with about 15 minutes actual cook-to-finish time.

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Ingredients

3 Acorn Squash
1 Large Yellow Onion, diced
1 Pound Ground Hot Pork Sausage
2 Apples, finely diced
2 Stalks of Celery, finely diced
1 Cup of Parmesan Cheese
2 Cloves of Garlic, minced
1/2 tsp Ground Sage
1 tsp Ground Rosemary
2 tsp Ground Thyme

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Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit, use a sturdy knife to slice the top of the Squash with the stem off. Try to get as close to the stem as you can. Then split squash in half and scoop out seeds and innards. Before the next step, have your onion diced and ready to go.
2. Rub your preferred cooking oil (vegetable, canola, olive) over the exposed inside area of each squash half, then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Once that is done, set them face down (skin side up) on a lined (or greased) baking sheet. At the same time, put a medium sized skillet on medium heat.
3. Put Squash in oven and leave to cook for about 40-55 minutes, or until skin is tender when touched with a fork. Then, add diced onions to pre-heated pan along with a neutral cooking oil. Season with seasoning salt/salt pepper and turn heat down to medium-low.
4. While your squash is roasting, you're caramelizing your onions, which will also take about 45-55 minutes. Stir every five minutes or so and keep heat medium-low. You're looking for an amber-ish color and to your whole onion to reduce down to about a quarter of what you put in. Use this time to prep your celery.
5. Once your Squash is fork tender, take out of oven and set aside for the time being. Once onions are to desired caramelization, also set aside.
6. In a large skillet over medium heat, coat the bottom of the pan in oil and put in your hot sausage. As it cooks, break apart with spatula until it's fairly small bits. Leave to cook until all or almost all brown, about 5 minutes. During this time, dice up your apples, skin on.
7. Add celery to sausage, leave to saute for another 2 minutes.
8. Add in your diced apples, garlic and the onions from your other pan, leave to cook for about 3-5 minutes.
9. Stir in 3/4 Cup parmesan, sage, rosemary and thyme. Let cook until parmsean starts to melt. About 1-2 minutes.
10. Take mixture off heat. Turn your squash halves over and spoon mixture into Squash halves. Try to fill them as much as possible, though you might have leftovers depending on size of Squash centers.
11. Return stuffed squash face side up to oven and bake for another 15 minutes or so.
12. Remove from oven and top with remaining, 1/4th cup parmesan. Enjoy!



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What I Could Do Differently

You could very easily switch out the hot sausage for breakfast sausage and have a just as tasty and even more fall-flavored meal.