Autumn Flatbread with Butternut Squash, Sage, and Sausage

Fall is here and that means it’s time for squash in all its forms. Don’t grimace: if you don’t adore squash like me, I’m begging you to give it a fresh look. Farmer’s markets in my area sell their squash for about 50 cents a piece when the harvest is good, so I stock up and store them in a bin in the basement to make them last through the winter.

Butternut squash is one of my favorites, because of its smooth silky texture and sweet, mild flavor. It can be a bit tricky to cut up, though, and when my knives aren’t really sharp, sometimes I will “cheat” and buy a bag or cubed raw squash at the store. Then all I do is simply toss the cubes in some olive oil, salt, and pepper, spread them out on a baking sheet, and roast them in a 425°F oven, turning them occasionally, until they’re toasty on the edges and you can stick a knife tip easily through the middle of one of the cubes.

Roasted squash is so good for you, because it’s packed with beta carotene and fiber. Almost all little kids love it, too, especially babies. Roast it long enough, and it tastes like candy. But this is the sort of candy we’re putting on flatbread!

In this flatbread recipe, a little sausage goes a long way. Even though he eats anything I make, my better half kind of turns his nose up at anything purely vegetarian; somehow he feels like he is missing out when he skips meat. (Maybe you have one or two people in your household who are the same way…) This recipe can definitely be made without the sausage, but throwing our loved ones a (meaty) bone now and again isn’t such a bad thing.

Butternut squash and sage is a classic Italian pairing, and here it gets a boost from the spicy sausage and a bit of acidity from the tomato sauce. I hope you love it!

Amy at Flatout