Dinner #1: Stuffed Eight Ball Squash

I am starting my blog with a meal from a few nights ago because it was so tasty! As you will see from the pictures, I cooked for a few extra people. But that's part of the reason I am doing this, to get used to cutting down how much I make. So here you go!

Eight Ball Squash. They are weird. Round like a pumpkin, but green like zucchini. I have never seen them in the store, but my parents grow them. You could make this recipe using regular zucchini, but you won't have as cute of a serving dish!

Ingredients:

Eight ball or regular zucchini (1 squash = 2 people),
1 package chicken sausage, decased and browned (I used stew leonards)
1/2 cup toasted pine nuts
1 cup diced fresh tomato
1/4 cup diced red onion
4 cloves minced fresh garlic
A handful of fresh basil.
2 cups cooked orzo
Parm Reggiano cheese (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Scoop out pulp from squash, diced it and put to the side. You have to parboil the squash for about 4 minutes in boiling salt water then let sit while you make the stuffing. Brown sausage in a large skillet. Remove and drain. Follow the directions on a box of orzo to cook about 2 cups of pasta til al dente. In a tablespoon of olive oil, sweat out the onions and garlic until translucent. Add diced squash pulp. Let saute until squash is cooked through. Add sausage and pine nuts. Cook or about 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Add fresh tomato, basil and cook orzo. Toss til mixed through and then add the parm cheese. Stuff into squash halves and put onto a cookie sheet or into a roasting pan. Bake in the oven for 20-40 minutes until the squash is fork tender.

My notes about this dish:
I did stuffed 3 eight ball squash so you will have to adjust ingredients if you are not cooking for an army. Also, if you do all your prep ahead of time like cooking the orzo, toasting the pine nuts and cutting the other ingredients, it makes this this dish easier to cook. The results were fabulous and I wrote this recipe with some changes that I thought would help. You will have adjust cooking time in oven depending on size of your squash. Enjoy and let me know if you have any questions!

Prep the ingredients.

Saute the squash pulp with onion, garlic and pre-cooked sausage.

Ready for the oven!