I forgot how good butternut squash is.
Basically, I split it, scooped out the strings & seeds (saving the seeds to roast like I do pumpkin seeds later, though there's not many of them), and put them skin down in the roasting pan.
I brushed olive oil on, then seasoned with rubbed sage, ground thyme, salt and freshly ground black pepper.
I put three baking potatoes in the pan, too, on a bed of rock salt and stuck the whole mess in a 400ºF oven for an hour.
For the meatballs, I'll go more 'recipe' mode here:
1.18 lbs Hot Italian Sausage
3.44 ground beef (very lean, 97/3)
3 eggs
1 onion, finely diced
1/2 cup Parmesan
1 tbsp. minced garlic
1/4 cup flaked parsley
1/4 cup Scimeca's Marinara
salt & freshly ground black pepper
Once I got everything all mushed up, I used a 1/4 cup measure to scoop up consistently sized balls, dredged them in flour and browned them in olive oil. I crowded the pan, which you shouldn't do, but I had a lot of meatballs to brown. Ended up using two skillets and both my casserole dishes to do it. If my roasting pan wasn't already occupied with squash and potatoes, maybe I could have fit them all in that.
The taters weren't quite done at an hour, so I put the roasting pan on the bottom rack, reduced the oven to 375ºF and put the browned meatballs in to bake for 30 minutes.
I served it as meatballs by themselves, baked potatoes and butternut squash. The meatballs are good, but would be better with a sauce. Either a red sauce or Alfredo or even a pesto. And pasta. Em wanted baked potatoes, and I figured one pure starch was enough for a spread, but the leftover meatballs, and they are legion, will probably get married to rigatoni and some sort of pasta sauce.
That butternut squash, though. I'm fixing to go on a binge with that winter squash.
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