Sometimes we need some warming comfort food, even when the season is generally getting warmer. In Wisconsin especially, May still throws a few cold, windy days our way and this casserole in a roasted squash meal covers all your bases. In addition to the delightfully sweet and tender squash, spicy sausage gets paired with onions, garlic, spinach, dried cranberries, and chopped walnuts. The result is a meal that has no need for sides at all.
If you do not have access to the absolutely delightful squash that is a Japanese pumpkin, you can easily substitute butternut squash or a similar option. Something sweet that has soft flesh upon roasting is perfect. If you aren't a fan of spicy food, you can use mild Italian sausage, though I like the spiciness to offset the sweetness in the roasted squash and dried cranberries. If you don't have walnuts, consider using pecans or even toasted pepitas.
As mentioned above, no sides are necessary for this all in one meal. Simply pour a glass or two of chilled dry white wine and dig in! While you can absolutely finish this one in one sitting, it does reheat well, though I do tend to scoop the flesh out of the squash and tuck it along with the filling into a container to store in the fridge. Makes things more compact and avoids the skin discoloring anything or making things slightly bitter when reheating.
Sausage & Spinach Stuffed Squash
- 1 large Japanese pumpkin (aka kabocha squash), quartered and seeds removed
- 10 oz. spicy Italian sausage, crumbled
- 1 small onion, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- 8 oz. fresh spinach
- ½ cup dried cranberries
- 1 cup halved and coarsely chopped walnuts
Preheat oven to 400° F. Place the quartered and deseeded squash - cut sides facing up - on a baking sheet. Roast in the preheated oven at 400° F for 30 or 40 minutes.
Make the sausage filling while the squash is being roasted in the oven. In a large skillet, heat the crumbled sausage over medium-high heat. Cook, further crumbling and stirring the sausage, for 5 minutes. Add the diced onion, minced garlic, and Italian seasoning and cook for about 5 minutes or more on medium heat until the sausage is completely cooked through.
Add the fresh spinach and cook for another 5 minutes on medium heat until the spinach wilts. Add the dried cranberries and chopped walnuts; mix everything.
By this time, you will have roasted the squash for 30 or 40 minutes. Remove them from the oven. Let it cool slightly.
Reheat the sausage mixture in the same skillet in which you made it to warm it up. Divide the sausage filling among the 4 quarters and stuff the squash until the mixture is leveled or a little bit higher. I like to place the squash quarters in the skillet the sausage mixture is in and heap it into the quarters and leave any additional sausage filling in the bottom of the skillet for anyone wanting more.
- Yields: 4 servings
- Preparation Time: 45 minutes