Savory Squash

I've been following Francis Lam on Salon.com and read this article with interest recently:

http://www.salon.com/food/francis_lam/2010/10/29/sausage_fat_roasted_butternut_squash/index.html

I think he brings up a good point that healthy nutritious food can sometimes taste a little bland and virtuous without a smidgen of something or other to enhance flavor and savoriness.  And yep, that smidgen often is fat, in the form of cheese or nuts or even meat.

I liked his approach, frying sliced squash in the sausage drippings left in the pan, and told myself I'd try it soon.  Then yesterday, upon opening the fridge, I realized my lunch choices were pretty minimal but we did have a heap of cooked acorn squash and a moderate of sausage gravy.  I combined the two, figuring they'd be tolerable together, if not completely my first choice, and headed to work. 

The work lunchroom can be a dismal place--wilted sandwiches, frozen dinners unmindfully reheated in little plastic trays, soggy vegetables, cottage cheese, leftovers grabbed out of expediency.  We eat out of necessity and not for pleasure.  Yesterday was a welcome change.  It turns out the combination of sausage gravy and winter squash hits several prime spots on the palate--sweet, salt, savory--the smooth vegetable goodness of the squash interspersed with the crispy meaty savor of sausage crumbles.  I had assembled my container thinking I would have two meals out of the concoction and ended up having a second helping instead. 

Ain't it lovely when practicality turns out something that would have been good enough to have been created intentionally.