Give Me Five: Roast butternut squash and sausages

There was a time when I dreamed of being totally self-sufficient. We planted a bit of everything in the garden with the zeal of the newly converted. We had hens and ducks that gave us the most beautiful eggs; there really is nothing like a sponge made with duck eggs. Our dream of owning pigs never materialised, as we soon realised what a huge commitment running a hobby farm is.

Growing up we always had animals, and I never really noticed how much hard work they were for my parents. There were pigs, goats, hens, ducks and geese as well as countless cats and kittens with the odd loyal dog here and there.

It was funny when I realised I was retracing my parents footsteps. It turns out that the apple doesn’t fall far from the crab-apple tree. Like them, we built fruit cages to protect our blackcurrants from thieving birds, collected jam jars for making preserves and dealt with exploding glass bottles of home brew.

There have been some changes over the years, however. My mother used the abundant courgettes to fill the freezer with ratatouille, whereas I fill my Instagram feed with endless photos of courgetti strewn with edible petals.

The self-sufficiency dream was as much a hobby for us as it was a necessity for my parents’ generation. It probably cost us more money in the long run. We even bought an attachment for the Kitchen Aid that minces meat so that we could make our own sausages.

As well as being great fun, it was interesting to see just how much pork belly is needed to achieve the perfect fat-to-meat ratio for sausages. It gave me a huge appreciation for artisan bakers, butchers and farmers. It’s fantastic to be able to buy a crusty loaf of sourdough bread or a bunch of carrots, knowing just how much work has gone into creating them. So I still grow lots myself, particularly herbs, but I find it better to shop from the experts and to support local farmer’s markets.

Sausage is one of the main ingredients in this week’s recipe. Flavoured sausages make for a great shortcut. There’s no need to mince garlic or gather a long list of ingredients when you can buy garlic and mixed-herb sausages, Cajun sausages, honey and mustard sausages and so on. Or you could use fresh chorizo-style sausages, which would completely change the resulting dish.

I sometimes remove the skin and seeds from the squash, but usually, due to time constraints, I just cut it into wedges. The seeds taste quite nice when roasted. You can eat any squash seeds the same way you would eat shop-bought pumpkin seeds. Just remove them from the squash, rinse and discard any stringy bits of flesh, then dry them on a tea towel. Tip them on to a baking tray and drizzle with a little olive oil and sea salt. You can add any flavourings you like: paprika, chilli, garam masala and so on. Roast until they are just beginning to brown, stirring halfway through. These are lovely scattered over salads or just to snack on. If you have made the effort to grow your own, using every last bit of the produce is extremely rewarding.

ROAST BUTTERNUT SQUASH AND SAUSAGES: SERVES 4

The five ingredients

• 8 sausages (garlic and herb if possible)
• 1 large butternut squash
• 200g cherry tomatoes
• 2 red onions
• 20g flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped

From the store cupboard

• Olive oil
• Salt
• Black pepper

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

Halve the butternut squash and cut into wedges. You can scoop out the seeds and discard them or keep them, as mentioned above.

Peel and quarter the onions. Place them on a large roasting tray with the sausages. Drizzle with a little olive oil and roast for 40-45 minutes or until everything looks cooked and golden.

Add the tomatoes to the pan, then return to the oven for a further five minutes.

Scatter the parsley over just before serving.

• Every Thursday we'll tweet the five ingredients from @lillyhiggins and @irishtimeslife so you can have them ready for Friday. Email givemefive@irishtimes.com with your suggestions for recipes