We’re always looking for tasty but not-too-taxing ideas for busy weekday dinners. Pizza is often an option, but recently we’ve found another use for the “pizza pans” we inherited from Steve’s Italian-American family. Especially since winter squash and apple season arrived, we’ve become quite enamored of savory tray bakes. Various starchy things and apples have been placed on a tray with excellent sausages from our local butcher, arriving at our table shortly thereafter with little mess to clean up. We know we’ll continue to create kitchen chaos with overly involved projects. But it’s nice to know that sometimes a simple, delicious meal is just a tray away.
SAUSAGE, APPLE AND WINTER SQUASH TRAY BAKE
(adapted from Delicious Magazine)
- 1 delicata squash, halved lengthwise, seeded and sliced in 1/2″ pieces (or other winter squash or sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into 1″ or so cubes)
- 2 apples, cored and sliced into wedges
- 1 TB butter, melted
- 1 TB maple syrup
- A little olive oil (maybe)
- Salt & pepper
- 2 sausages, about 1/3 pound each, pricked with a fork
- 10 or so fresh sage leaves
- Several sprigs fresh thyme (optional)
Preheat oven to 400° F, with a rack in the upper third.
Place squash or sweet potato pieces and apple slices in a large bowl. Toss with butter and maple syrup, adding a little olive oil if it seems too dry. Season generously with salt and pepper and toss again.
Place sausages and squash/apple mixture on a hotel or other flat pan with short sides. Place in oven. Bake for 20 minutes, then remove from oven and turn sausages and squash over. Add sage leaves and thyme. Return to oven and bake for 15 minutes more.
Serve with mustard, preferably Colman’s.
[You can also use, as the original recipe calls for, regular white potato chunks instead of squash. In that case, omit the maple syrup.]
Gourmandistan 
Looks delicious. I plan to give it a try.
Excellent! And I know you’ll have the maple syrup on hand. 🙂
Making tomorrow. Yum.
🙂
Those look like excellent sausages too!
Oh, they were. We are so lucky to have a wonderful butcher selling local, humanely-raised meats.
Sometimes simple really is best! This looks amazing, and perfect for autumn.
Thanks! It’s nice to have access to really good ingredients. The simpler the recipe the more you need them.
Looks lovely. Sausage does have a way of making anything you serve it with taste delicious.
To paraphrase Homer Simpson, “mmmm, pork.”
This is a nice combination of flavours, pork really goes well with apples
Apples so good here this time of year. Thanks, Raymund!
Beautiful. Really lovely photo.
Aaw, thanks, Conor!
Yum. Can you eat the peels of the squash? They look pretty. Must we call this a tray bake. It’s just me, I know, but you’re lucky I like you guys or I wouldn’t have popped over here. Tray bakes… what happened to roasting pan? And bowls… don’t get me started.
Yes, you eat the peels of delicata squash, which makes it one of my favorite varieties (though it’s not as easy to find as others). Well, I suppose we all have our pet peeves. Tray bake or traybake is a description used more often in British and Australian recipes (albeit more often sweet ones). To my ear, it’s a little more catchy than “sheet-pan dinner” as, for example, Bon Appetit Magazine calls such things. But you can can it whatever you want. 🙂
I need to find this squash. Thanks. No, sheet pan dinner doesn’t sound good, but these are basically cooked in a roasting pan, albeit with shallower sides. I really dislike the term “bowl.” What the hell is wrong with a plate?!!
Do look for delicatas. They’re really good. Sadly they seem to have disappeared from our farmers markets almost as soon as they arrived. But I do occasionally see them at Whole Foods, I think.
Good to know. Thanks!
The no peeling is grand.
Your meal is very simple to prepare but very flavorful to eat…perfect for a fall weekday dinner.
Easy is good!