This is one of Fred’s favorite summer meals. We always have a lot of summer squash on hand and a lot of sausage, too, so why not put them together? I’ve also made this without meat, and it’s really good that way as a side dish (or a meatless main dish).
The ingredients:
1 pound of ground sausage, 1 jar of spaghetti sauce, 8 oz. mozzarella (I usually use shredded, but all we had was this block of mozzarella, and I didn’t feel like shredding it myself), 1 onion. Not pictured: 2 cookie sheets of Roasted Summer Squash.
Chop up the onion and cook it over medium heat until the onion is softened.
Add sausage, and cook completely.
Drain the browned sausage and onion in a colander, and then run warm water over it to get as much grease out as possible. Let it sit for about 5 minutes afterward to allow it to fully drain.
Spray the bottom and sides of a 8×8 baking dish with cooking spray.
Put a layer of roasted summer squash:
A layer of sausage and onion:
A layer of spaghetti sauce:
And a layer of mozzarella:
Repeat the layers of squash, meat and spaghetti sauce, then top with one last layer of squash, a thin layer of spaghetti sauce, and the rest of the mozzarella.
Bake in a preheated 350ºF oven for 10 – 15 minutes, until the cheese is melted and the sauce is bubbly. Take it out and let it cool a bit before serving.
Warning: this stuff can be kind of watery, thus the reason I didn’t show you a scoop of it on a plate, because it looks like shit. But it tastes like heaven! We eat this stuff ’til it’s coming out our ears every summer. It is just SO DAMN GOOD, and I love that we grew the squash and sausage ourselves!
(Comments closed due to the GODDAMN SPAMMERS.)
- 2 cookie sheets of roasted summer squash - http://www.dinosaurscanteatpizza.com/roasted-summer-squash/
- 1 lb ground sausage
- 8 oz mozzarella (I prefer shredded)
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 jar spaghetti sauce
- Over medium heat in a large pan, cook chopped onion until softened.
- Add ground sausage and cook completely.
- Rinse and drain sausage & onion in a colander. Let drain for about 5 minutes.
- Spray the bottom of an 8x8 baking dish with cooking spray.
- Put a layer of roasted squash on the bottom of the dish.
- Add a layer of sausage and onion.
- Add a thin layer of spaghetti sauce.
- Top with mozzarella.
- Repeat one more layer each of roasted squash, sausage and onion, spaghetti sauce.
- Top with last layer of roasted squash, cover thinly with spaghetti sauce, and add the remaining mozzarella.
- Bake in preheated oven for 10 - 15 minutes, until cheese is melted and sauce is bubbly.
- Cool slightly before serving.
Thanks for this one. It looks really, really good and I have everything on hand, so this is what we’ll eat tonight. The sausage I have is hot Italian, but I’d bet that would make it even better.
Oh absolutely, hot Italian sausage makes everything better!
(That sounds pervy, doesn’t it? Haha!)
Try salting your squash slices and letting them “air dry” for an hour on non-fuzzy dish towels or paper towels. I have 4 colanders so I usually separate the squash into the colanders, sprinkle a bit of salt over each and leave them on the counter with a towel underneath for 30 minutes, come back and flip over the squash then sprinkle a little salt wait 30 more minutes. It draws a lot of the moisture out and cuts down on the mush when using it in a recipe.
Thanks, Jai, I’ll give that a try next time! 🙂
Ok, I have got to ask. Why does your package of sausage say “Not for Sale”?
According to Fred, Because it’s privately made, and not for sale to the public. 🙂