According to every influencer on the GRAM. If it’s October, you bet your skinny hiker ass you better be cooking with pumpkin! However, I don’t care for pumpkin, so I won’t be adding it to my e
nchiladas, my body butter, my cappuccino, or my lasagna. I will, however, substitute acorn squash because I’m not a savage over here in the UGG hiking boots. I do however love me some cheesy comfort foods on a crisp fall evening, such as this, Acorn Squash and Sausage Bake.
After an autumn day of trekking eight miles in my favorite gently thrifted romper and hiking boots combination, I’m way too busy photo editing 500 gorgeous photos to make a complicated camp dinner. Hello, Acorn Squash and Sausage Bake, you easy little autumn minx.
When it comes to my dislike for everything pumpkin, it’s only accelerated by my love of everything acorn squash. And come on, you can really only enjoy acorn squash for about six weeks in the fall.
Now this easy fall-flavored Acorn Squash and Sausage Bake casserole is why I turn the oven back on in late September. Hey there, oven, I have missed you. However, when it comes to summer memories, we will always have BPA-free air fryer shenanigans and all my favorite summertime salads.
Between Gruyère cheese, hot Italian sausage and fresh sage picked straight from my organic garden, these are fall flavors gone completely off the rails. Especially if, like me, you believe cheese is less of an ingredient and more of a food group.
This dish is also a fantastic excuse to clean out the cheese drawer. I prefer a combination of aged Gruyère, Manchego, Pecorino and mozzarella, but this is exactly the kind of cozy fall casserole where you can grate in whatever cheeses are currently lurking in your refrigerator and starting to look emotionally complicated. If that wedge of Gouda is going to become questionable by Friday, congratulations. It has found its purpose.
Wait. Am I the only person who routinely has six different kinds of cheese open
on a random Wednesday?
In my defense, part of this is technically work. As Big Bear Lake, California’s number-one-rated Jeep tour guide, Snack Sherpa and professional charcuterie enabler, I am required to keep an irresponsible amount of cheese on hand. At least that is what I tell myself every time I come home with another wedge of Gruyère. I don’t have a cheese problem. I have a cheese inventory management situation.
So what do you serve this Acorn Squash and Sausage Bake with? I mean, besides just dipping a large spoon into all that deliciousness? A loaf of home-baked sourdough bread is the best and you can find the Best Sourdough Bread Recipe here.
Acorn Squash & Sausage Bake: Autumn Got Drunk on Gruyère
1/2 cup of grated Gruyère cheese
1/2 cup of grated mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup of half-and-half
1/8 cup fresh sage leaves, chopped
1 small acorn squash
1 bag of cauliflower florets, given a rough chop
2 shallots, chopped
1/2 cup of dry white wine
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of pepper
1 package of hot Italian sausage, trust me, buy the Trader Joe’s brand
Wrap your acorn squash in foil with some olive oil and roast it in your campfire coals for about 45 minutes. Remove it from the oven to cool. When the flesh is cool enough to handle, cut out the flesh of the acorn squash and cut it into cubes.
While the acorn squash is roasting, cook your Italian sausage in a cast iron skillet in your outdoor camp kitchen. When the sausage is cooked, remove it from the skillet and set it aside. Add the shallots, sage leaves and the garlic to all that lovely fat just until they are cooked. Use that white wine to deglaze the pan. Mix in your veggies, cauliflower and the acorn squash and then mix in the Italian sausage, half and half and the salt and pepper. Top this dish with the two cheeses. Cover your whole dish with foil and set your cast iron skillet over the rack on your campfire. Let it cook over the campfire for thirty minutes until the cheeses are cooked and bubbling. Serve this with warm sourdough bread.
