Roasted Celebration Squash, Sweet Potato and Spicy Sausage

Last week I bought a squash along with a couple of sweet potatoes with the intention of roasting them for dinner one day in mind. However, it seemed to me as though this alone couldn’t be counted as a complete plate of food. So, when I saw the picture of roasted squash and sausages sitting atop the recipes topic on WordPress, my mind was made up. This is such a quintessentially autumnal dish; the squash is certainly only available at this time of the year, while the sweet potato is more readily available. Not only this, but it is also incredibly satisfying to eat, with the heat provided by the sausages cutting across the sweetness of the squash and sweet potato.

Before making this dish I had never consumed any other squash but the questionably shaped, though thoroughly delicious, butternut squash. I suppose I could have been a little more adventurous in my choice of winter fruit, since it is essentially identical in taste to the butternut variety – though one must admit, much prettier. It is, however, a happy coincidence that the flavour of the celebration, or carnival, squash matches that of the sweet potato rather well. Though, I do intend on returning to the receptacle from whence my pretty little fruit came and purchasing something which can only be described as a dwarf pumpkin.

The sausages turned out to be a shrewd choice on my part; they went perfectly with the sweet taste of the fruit and vegetables. Any spicy sausage would do for this dish, chorizo itself would perform just nicely – though its use may set one back a little more. The best way to prepare whatever sausage you buy is to first remove the HOG sausage casings, then fry them in a little olive oil; it allows the sausage to retain its fat and flavour which will then ooze over the fruit and vegetables when transferred.

I regret to inform you that I am to begin a week long hiatus from blogging starting from the moment this recipe has been posted. Mr. Frugal is off to visit Katherine as he has not seen her for close to seven weeks, which is far too many in my opinion. Don’t miss me too much WordPress, I shall return with a number of recipes, though not the actual food, up my sleeves – Au Revoir.

Roasted Celebration Squash and Sweet Potato with Spicy Sausage

Serves 3-4

Ingredients:

• 6 high quality sausages, spicy if at all possible

• 1 celebration/carnival squash, de-seeded, skinned and roughly chopped

• 2 sweet potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped

• 5 or 6 large cloves of garlic left whole

• A few sprigs of thyme

• Olive oil

• Salt and Pepper

Method:

1. Heat the oven to around 180C. Place the squash, sweet potatoes, garlic and a sprinkling of fresh thyme in an oven dish, drizzle over some olive oil and season well.

2. Fry off the sausages until firm enough to cut into inch thick slices, this should take 5 minutes or so. Once the sausages are cut up add them, and their juices, to the casserole dish in the oven. Cook for a further 10 minutes, which will allow one side of the sausages to brown, before turning them over to allow the other side to follow suit. Serve alone or with bread.

Cost: The entire oven dish of food, which should be plenty for four people, set me back no more than £3.50. Eating fruit and vegetables when they are in season really is great advice to follow; their price will, more often than not, be heavily reduced.