As you may well know, it’s squash overload season! I’ve been eating zucchini every day, already frozen at least 5 quarts of it, and still had 2 giant spaghetti squash sitting on my counter to use up. I had to start getting creative so I didn’t feel like I was drowning in squash. Guess what that means? You’ll be slammed with squash recipes this next week or two. Hope you don’t mind. Cause, golly gee, we’ve all got to use it!
I had the idea last night to make a sandwich out of that squash- which seemed a little risky, I know. I ended up making up dinner as I went along. I was kind of expecting it to be a soggy disaster, but it ended up being a delicious creation!
This would be a great meal to make if you had leftover spaghetti squash already prepared. If you don’t already have some made, I’ll include directions to make it for tonight’s sandwich. If you have any leftover, it can double as a simple side for tomorrow’s dinner!
You ready to give my crazy idea a try?
You need:
- 1 small spaghetti squash
- 1 lb hot sausage links
- About 12 fresh squash blossoms (If you don’t have these, no worries, the sandwich will still be good!)
- 1/4 cup fresh picked basil leaves
- Cheddar cheese
- Spaghetti sauce
- Salt & pepper to taste
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- Bread or rolls on which to serve the sandwiches
*NOTE: The bread which you choose should be fairly sturdy. Try sprouted, seed-filled, toasted, sourdough, or hard roll, perhaps. (Read: Please don’t use store-bought sliced white bread!) I used my homemade Crunchy Sprouted Sandwich Loaf (recipe coming soon), which had delightful texture and held up well to the moisture of the squash. If you use a very soft bread, your sandwich will turn to mush on you! You’ve been warned… 🙂
Okay, here we go! Skip step one and two if you already have leftover spaghetti squash prepared.
- Slice spaghetti squash in half. Remove seeds. Place face down on a baking sheet, poke holes in skin with a fork. Stick ‘er in the oven at 400 for about 30-45 minutes, or until soft and flesh is scraped out easily with a fork.
- Take a 10 minute breather before the next step. (Or be productive and make sure all of your ingredients for sandwich assembly are ready to go.)
- Break’s done! Get cooking sausage links over medium heat on the stove. Once they are fairly well cooked through, remove from pan and slice lengthwise into quarters. If needed/desired, throw ’em back in the pan and brown them up on all sides for a moment. Remove, drain grease.
- Quickly saute squash blossoms in the sausage pan with a little salt and pepper, for only 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat.
- Once your squash is soft and the edges are golden brown, remove from oven. Carefully scrape out the flesh of the squash with a fork into a large bowl. Drain the extra liquid if needed, and save it for soup or some other worthy cause. Add salt, pepper, and Parmesan to taste.
- Get ready to assemble your sandwich! Here’s the order, from bottom to top:
- Bread on bottom
- Spaghetti sauce, spread on both bread slices
- Spaghetti squash, spread in a moderate layer across the bottom slice of bread
- Sausage quarters (About 1 link per sandwich)
- Squash blossoms (3 per sandwich, laid diagonally)
- Basil leaves (divided evenly)
- Cheddar sprinkled over the top
- Additional sauce if desired
- Bread on top
As you can see, you’ll need to pace yourself as you stack so you don’t end up with a monstrosity! It can be served warm or cold. If you’re brave enough to try this, tell me how you like it. Hope you enjoy your squashy sandwich!
