Recipe: Baked Acorn Squash with Sausage and Maple Syrup

BAKED ACORN SQUASH WITH SAUSAGE AND MAPLE SYRUP

"This simple dinner is easy and delicious. My mother usually served Waldorf salad with baked squash - the crunchy apple-celery-nut salad was a good companion to the baked squash's silky richness, and its cool-weather flavors seemed to go well, too. My father especially loved this dish; I can see him rubbing his hands together in gleeful, greedy anticipation of one of his favorite dinners."

2 acorn squash
1 pound bulk sage pork breakfast sausage
1/2 cup pure maple syrup

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Using a very sharp knife, prepare the squash by cutting them in half from stem end to stern. Scoop out and discard the seeds and fibers. Turn the squash over; cut a small flat slice from the bottom of each squash half so it will sit squarely in a baking dish. Place the squash halves in a baking dish large enough to hold them.

Divide the pork sausage into four portions. Pack the cavity of each squash half with pork sausage. Drizzle 2 tablespoons of the maple syrup over the pork sausage in each squash half. Add 1-inch of water to the baking dish around the squash halves. Cover the dish with aluminum foil.

Bake for 1 hour, or until the squash is tender when pierced with a knife. Serve immediately.

Makes 4 servings
Source: The Feast Nearby by Robin Mather