twice baked delicata squash

move over, potatoes!!

I spent far too long attempting to research the origins of twice baked potatoes in an effort to state, with conviction, that they are a Southern delicacy. But alas, the origins of twice baked potatoes are extremely difficult to track down.

Had I been able to prove that they were in fact a Southern dish, I would have said that I was raised on one of the South’s greatest contributions: twice baked potatoes. My mother is a health conscious cook, always lightening up and lowering carbs (as she is a type 1 diabetic) in the Southern dishes that she grew up on. But one dish she did not mess around with? Twice baked potatoes.

Twice baked potatoes remained a butter, sour cream, and shredded cheese-filled feast of the senses. She did not attempt to alter them, she kept them in their truest form — a creamy, cheesy, perfect little carb bomb.

I have never even thought about introducing twice baked potatoes here on What To Cook because they’re fussy! Baking the potatoes, scooping out the insides, mixing the insides in a bowl with all of the creamy things, stuffing them back into the potato skins… all of that work for a SIDE DISH?! Then you still have to cook the actual dinner?!

I had “delicata squash something” slotted for today’s recipe, and earlier this week, as I stood in my kitchen staring at the 10 squash I grabbed at the market, willing them to speak to me, **twice baked squash** literally popped into my head like a fever dream. I could see it so clearly! But obviously, if we were going to bake, scoop, mix, re-stuff, bake again… it had to be to make a complete meal. No side-dish stuffed squash here.

This twice baked squash isn’t just a cheesy carb bomb — it’s a protein-packed, ridiculously flavorful, complete meal. Eat one, eat two, eat it with the baked kale salad (it’s so good), or skip the salad completely. Just eat it! It’s so good!!!

<3 balsamic-y baked kale salad <3

LESSON #1: Here’s how to make lean ground meat taste like sausage.

In this recipe, we’re using pork sausage (ideally Jimmy Dean sage sausage) as the protein. I chose sausage not only because it’s delicious, but also because it’s already seasoned with lots of spices and herbs, thus allowing us to make a really flavorful meal with very few ingredients (one of the founding tenets of this newsletter!).

However, if you want to make this meal leaner, I have some ideas for you. You could use turkey sausage (available in most grocery stores) or chicken sausage (I love this ground raw chicken sausage from Whole Foods).

You could also use plain ground chicken, turkey, venison (sup, hunter wives?), or pork (beef would overpower here, I think), and season it up like sausage by doing the following:

Warm 1 tablespoon oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Cook 1 minced shallot for 2 to 3 minutes. Stir 2 teaspoons oregano, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, 1 teaspoon onion powder, 1/2 teaspoon paprika, 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes, and 1/4 teaspoon fennel seeds into the mixture for 30 seconds. If you are missing any of these spices, just add a bit more of some of the others to compensate. No biggie. Now add the ground turkey (or chicken or whatever!) and cook, chopping the meat into tiny crumbles, until all of the liquid has evaporated. Stir in 1 tablespoon red wine. Proceed with the recipe — stirring in the breadcrumbs and apple.

You can use this trick for this recipe, and/or for any of these from the archives:

• sausage stuffed zucchini

• one-pot cheesy sausage & butternut squash orzotto

• a perfect breakfast casserole

• one-pot sausage and corn pasta

LESSON #2: Roasted garlic is your new best friend.

We’re also relying on another ingredient to deliver tons of flavor: garlic (which, by the way, has immune-boosting properties — very noteworthy as we head into cold and flu season!). We’re taking a whole head (AKA bulb) of fresh garlic, trimming off the tippy top of it to expose a little of each clove, drizzling it with EVOO, seasoning it with kosher salt and pepper, wrapping it in a pocket of tin foil, and roasting it for 30 to 40 minutes. The result is a head of roasted garlic that gives this recipe — and any other! — a huge dose of mellow, sweet, absolutely delicious flavor.

After it roasts, you can squeeze the soft and squishy garlic right out of its skin. In this case, it’ll go into the filling for our twice baked squash. But once you know how to roast garlic, you can add it to pretty much any recipe that calls for raw garlic to give the dish a flavor boost. It’s great mixed into hummus, soups, and salad dressings. Plain noodles tossed with roasted garlic and EVOO? A dream! Roasted garlic as part of a cheese board? People will freak. Roasted garlic smeared on a piece of good bread? Amazing.

Next Thursday I’m headed to Palo Alto for one of the last few stops on the What to Cook book tour! There are still a few tickets left — come hang out!!! Get your books personalized for holiday gifts!!

And in case you missed it, we added TWO MORE STOPS to the tour later this fall/early winter. We put it up to a vote on Instagram and the winning cities were… drumroll please… New Orleans and Denver! I’ll keep you posted on dates as soon as I have them!

I taught cooking classes on Zoom (many of you were there!! it’s been so fun to meet you guys IRL during book tour!!) and filming this class felt like a throw back to those days. It’s a full, 38-minute walk through of the recipe. Press play, cook along with me, press pause when you need to, fast forward when my kids interrupt, rewind when your kids interrupt. Have fun and enjoy cooking with a buddy! This video is uncut, you are fully in my kitchen cooking through the entire recipe with me! Please let me know if you enjoy these full demos, or if shorter clips of techniques would be more helpful?! Seriously, I love hearing the best ways to make cooking more fun, and easier for you. Let me know!