Late-Summer Stuffed Squash
This recipe is a perfect melding of late summer food flavors -- all in one dish. It's one of those dishes that looks real fancy, but isn't. Serve this when you want to impress your book club or in-laws ;-).
Ingredients
Ingredients
- 12 globe squash choose larger ones for stuffing
- 3 lbs fresh tomatoes, stemmed and diced or 24oz canned diced tomatoes
- 1 med yellow onion diced
- 3 med carrots diced
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 small bunch of basil
- 2 lbs pasture raised ground pork or other ground meat of choice
Spice Blend
- t tsp sea salt
- ½ tsp fresh ground pepper
- ½ tsp oregano
- ½ tsp dried thyme
- ½ tsp dried parsley
- ½ tsp granulated garlic
- ½ tsp granulated onion
- 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Add the olive oil to a large sauté pan and heat over medium. Add the onions, garlic, and tomatoes. Bring to a simmer and stir frequently. The goal is to reduce the liquid, so continue cooking over medium heat.
- Add the carrots and the salt, pepper, and spice blend. Cook for about 20 minutes, continuing to stir the mixture to prevent burning.
- Add the ground meat and break apart with a spatula and continue to cook until the meat is cooked through. Turn down the heat.
- Chiffonade 10-12 leaves of basil, set aside. Add the basil to the meat and veggie mixture before spooning into squash.
- While the meat is cooking, slice the stems off of the squash. Use a spoon to score a circle about 1 cm from the edge. I suggest using a cookie dough scooper (basically a small ice cream scoop) to scoop out the innards of each squash, being careful to keep the outter flesh intact.
- Set the squash in a 9 x 13 in baking dish.
- Spoon the meat and veggie mixture into the squash and overfill.
- Bake for 30 minutes or until a knife easily pierces the squash. Top with a sprig of basil and serve.