Twice-Baked Beef and Potato Acorn Squash

Our cabbage-stuffed acorn squash is a regular at our house, but this is the one that disappears. The squash gets roasted, scooped out, and mashed together with buttery Keuka Gold potatoes, then it all goes back into the shells over a layer of browned beef and onion, and back into the oven until the top turns golden. It’s shepherd’s pie, except the squash is both the bowl and half the mash.

It takes about an hour and a quarter, and it reheats better than it has any right to.

What you need

Serves 4

• 2 acorn squash
• 1 pound Keuka Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 sweet onion, diced
• 2 cloves German hardneck garlic, minced
• Half a pint of the tomatoes you put up in August, or 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 4 tablespoons butter, plus a little for the squash
• A splash of milk (we use our own goat milk; any whole milk works)
• Salt, pepper, and a pinch of dried thyme
• A handful of shredded cheddar

How we do it

1. Roast the squash. Heat the oven to 400°F. Halve the squash from stem to tip, scoop out the seeds, rub the cut sides with butter and salt, and roast cut side down for 40 to 45 minutes. You want them fully soft this time, because the flesh is coming out.
2. Boil the potatoes. While the squash roasts, cover the potatoes in salted water and boil until fork-tender, about 15 minutes. Drain them.
3. Brown the beef. Brown the beef in a skillet, breaking it up as it cooks. Add the onion and cook until soft, then the garlic for one more minute. Stir in the tomatoes and thyme, season well, and simmer until thick enough that nothing runs off a spoon. The filling has to be thick so the mash sits on top of it instead of sinking.
4. Scoop and mash. When the squash is cool enough to handle, scoop out the flesh and leave about a quarter inch in the shell so it holds its shape. Mash the squash flesh and potatoes together with 4 tablespoons of butter, a splash of milk, and plenty of salt and pepper. Acorn squash shells are sturdier than they look, so don’t baby them.
5. Build and bake again. Spoon the beef into the bottom of each shell, then pile the mash high on top and rough it up with a fork. The peaks are what brown. Scatter cheddar over the top and bake 20 minutes, until the mash is golden at the edges. Two minutes under the broiler at the end never hurt anybody.

Make-ahead: Assemble everything the night before and refrigerate. The next evening, bake it about 30 minutes, until it’s hot all the way through. On a weeknight, that’s supper with no dishes left in the sink.

If you’d rather skip the meat, our original stuffed acorn squash with cabbage, onion, and garlic is the one this recipe grew out of.

Photo: WordRidden, Flickr, CC BY 2.0.