Reviewed on Oct. 16, 2012 by lunapiercook
This is an "old-style" recipe, requiring actual work in peeling the two squash. The outer 1/4" or so of each squash should be removed, and this should be done like de-skinning a pineapple, cutting off the ends, standing it on a board and cutting down the skin vertically in sections with a large, sharp blade. This may throw some people off but it's really worth the effort. The print version of the recipe specifies bulk Italian sausage instead of Johnsonville's, so we used Tennessee Pride mild roll sausage, which is similar to an Italian. Everything else was as-written. The mixture filled two 9" x 13" glass casseroles nicely, which we placed on half-sheet pans for baking. It's done when the acorn squash is still not quite al dente and the butternut is just getting soft, any more baking and the butternut would be mush. The dish came out as an actual meal of its own, only needing some good biscuits on the side. We'll definitely be making this again, looking at variations of dried Michigan cherries, using sautéed bias-cut smoked kielbasa added after baking vs. the sausage added before, or maybe even using the veggies and cheese only as a bed for a grilled pork loin topped with an apple-onion relish. This dish would be a good basis for a lot of other hearty comfort dishes.