Pine sausage stuffed with sausage is an easy and delicious recipe that will be a great addition or a main course. This is the ultimate comfort food for fall and winter and a great way to add vegetables to your dinner!
Acorn pumpkin stuffed with sausage – a festive autumn recipe
Combining acorn pumpkin with sausage is one of the best and tastiest ways to serve this winter vegetable! Try this easy-to-prepare and flavorful recipe and it will quickly become a family favorite dish! It is gluten free, loaded with protein and fiber. This basic recipe will impress you with its simplicity. It’s so easy, you can do it quickly on a busy weekday night!
- First, roast the pine nuts in the oven.
- While roasting the pumpkin, prepare the stuffing by cooking the onion, sausage, garlic, spices, then adding spinach, dried cranberries and pecans.
- Fill the roasted acorn pumpkin halves with the freshly cooked sausage mixture, and dinner is ready! Very simple but beautiful and delicious!
Extra for a holiday or main course
One of the reasons I love fall and winter is because it’s the time we get to cook winter pumpkins. I especially like pumpkin recipes that include salty ingredients, like this lasagna of butter and spinach pumpkin or the Anchilda stew black bean butter pumpkin.
This recipe for acorn stuffed with delicious sausages combines salty and sweet flavors, is gluten-free, and is perfect for the fall and winter seasons. This is a great choice as a side dish to a holiday or as a main course for Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year’s Eve.
Variations and substitutions
This is a great base recipe for stuffed gourd. It connects quickly, the recipe steps are easy, and you can skip many ingredients altogether or replace them with something else similar. The recipe is versatile and can be easily adjusted to what you have on hand.
- sausage. This recipe works best with a spicy Italian sausage that adds lots of salty flavors and some spice to the pumpkin. You can use any other type of hot dog. If you do not like spicy sausages, use a delicate or sweet Italian sausage. You can also use chicken sausage. I used crumbled sausage, however, you can also use the one in the packages – just remove the pods and crumble it while cooking.
- Onion. The onion is lightly caramelized at first and then combined with sausage. You can use any variety of onions: sweet onions, yellow onions or white onions.
- Spinach. Use fresh or frozen spinach (completely thawed and drained of any liquid). You can also use kale or Swiss chard instead.
- nuts. While pecans are a great choice here, you can easily use many other types of nuts, including pine nuts, cashews, or chopped almonds.
- Dried cranberries. You can also use dried figs, raisins or dried cherries.
- Italian seasoning Combines just the right dry herbs and is perfect for the acorn pumpkin stuffed with sausage! You can also use fresh herbs if you like, like thyme, sage or oregano. But, because sausage has such a strong flavor, just stick to a dry herb mixture – it works best here!
How to cut gourd acorns
- First, cut the top and bottom of each gourd acorn to form a flat base. Keep your fingers away from the knife to prevent injury. And yes, be careful not to cut too deep into the pumpkin base.
- Then, slice each pumpkin in half.
- Use a spoon to rake the seeds and fleshy strands that get tangled with the seeds.
How to make a pumpkin stuffed with sausage
- Roast the pumpkin. You will need 2 medium sized pumpkins. Carefully slice each into two, pulling out the seeds. You will have 4 gourd half acorns. Roast in a preheated oven at 400 F for 30 minutes.
- Prepare the filling. While roasting the pumpkin, prepare the sausage filling. First, cook together the onion and sausage. Next, add Italian seasoning, ground garlic. Finally, add spinach, cook it until it is wilted. Next, stir in dried cranberries and pecans.
- Fill the pumpkin. Add the prepared sausage filling from the previous step into the cavities of each of the 4 halves of the acorn pumpkin. Return it to the oven at 350 degrees Celsius for about 10 or 20 minutes, and the pine cone stuffed with your sausage is ready!
Cooking tips
- Use crumbled sausage. It works best for filling the acorn pumpkin. However, if you bought sausages in packages, this is not a problem – just remove the wrappers and crumble the sausage while cooking.
- Fresh or frozen spinach. I used fresh spinach but you can also use frozen spinach here (thawed and drained well of all liquids).
- Salt. I did not add salt to the sausage mixture because my sausage was salty enough. If your sausage is not salty enough, feel free to season the filling with extra salt. I did indeed season the pumpkin generously with salt and pepper when I roasted it.
- To utilize the cooking time efficiently, Prepare the sausage mixture while you roast the pine nuts in the oven.
- Bake or roast. You can roast the stuffed pine nuts briefly (about 5 minutes) in the oven if you like. Pay close attention to the pumpkin – it can burn easily. Otherwise, once you fill the pumpkin, just heat in the oven for 10 or 20 minutes just until the stuffing heats up.
How to store and reheat a stuffed gourd
- cool. Keep pine nuts stuffed with sausage in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
- freeze. You can easily freeze this dish in an airtight container for up to two months.
- Reheat. Preheat the pumpkin in a preheated oven at 350 F for about 30 minutes or until all the ingredients are heated.
What to serve with acorn pumpkin
More pumpkin gourd recipes for the holiday you will love
More delicious winter squash recipes you might like
Acorn squash stuffed with sausage
Acorn pumpkin stuffed with sausage is an easy and delicious recipe that will make a great addition or main course. This is the ultimate comfort food for fall and winter and is a great way to add vegetables to your dinner!
Component
Pumpkin acorns
- 2 Pumpkin acorns medium
- 2 Spoons Olive oil
- ¼ teaspoon Salt or more
- black pepper Freshly ground
Sausage filling
- 1 tablespoon Olive oil
- 1 Onion Small, cut into cubes
- 8 courage Italian sausage Spicy, crumbled
- 4 cloves garlic ground
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- 4 courage Spinach fresh
- 1 Goblet Dried cranberries
- 1 Goblet Pecans chopped
Instructions
Roasted acorn pumpkin
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Preheat oven to 400 F.
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Prepare the pine nuts. Cut the top and bottom of each gourd acorn to form a flat base. Keep your fingers away from the knife to prevent injury. And yes, be careful not to cut too deep into the pumpkin base. Slice each pumpkin in half. Use a spoon to rake the seeds and fleshy strands that get tangled with the seeds.
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Place the sliced pine nuts with the sides facing up on a baking sheet. Drizzle the cut sides of the pine nuts pumpkin with olive oil and rub the oil into the pumpkin. Season generously with salt and pepper. Turn the pumpkin over and place it with the cut sides facing down on a baking sheet.
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Roast in a preheated oven at 400 F for 30 minutes.
Prepare sausage filling
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Prepare the sausage filling while roasting the pumpkin in the oven.
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In a large skillet, heat olive oil, add diced onion and cook over medium-high heat for about 2 minutes until cooked through and slightly charred.
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Add crumbled sausage, ground garlic and Italian seasoning and cook for about 5 minutes or more over medium heat until the sausage is completely cooked.
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Add fresh spinach and cook for another 5 minutes over medium heat until the spinach is wilted.
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Add dried cranberries and chopped pecans and mix everything.
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Season with salt and pepper. Probably not necessary since the sausage is already usually salty (unless you use a sweet sausage that I do not recommend).
How to fill pumpkin acorns
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At this point, roast the pine nuts for 30 minutes. Remove them from the oven and turn the cooked pumpkin halves with the cut sides facing up.
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Divide the sausage filling between the 4 halves and fill the pumpkin until the mixture is level or slightly higher.
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Bake the stuffed pine nuts in an oven preheated to 350 F for another 10 or 20 minutes until the sausage mixture warms up.
diet
Nutritional information
Acorn squash stuffed with sausage
Quantity per serving
% Daily value *
* Percentage of daily values based on a 2000 calorie diet.
The nutritional information on this site is for evaluation purposes only and is provided for convenience and courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for each recipe on this site is not guaranteed. It should not be used as a substitute for the advice of a professional nutritionist.
