tray-roasted butternut squash, romanesco, shallots and torn sausage with kale, capers and warm sage oil

Two sheet trays and a scan of every sausage label at the store, that is the real work in this one. Most brands slip in black pepper or fennel seed, both excluded during this phase, so before this becomes a weeknight regular you need a sausage seasoned with nothing but sea salt and herbs, homemade or a clean-label find. Settle that once and the rest is genuinely easy: everything else goes on the tray and the oven does the work, which is exactly the kind of dinner a long elimination phase should hand you more often.

The color on that tray is doing real work in your body too. The beta-carotene in butternut squash converts to vitamin A, and your body uses vitamin A to help keep the single layer of cells that forms your gut lining sealed tight, a seal an overactive immune system needs settled before it can stand down. The fiber in romanesco and kale gives the microbes living along that seal something to work with, which is part of how a gut barrier holds steady over the months, not just the meal.

A pig gave you the richness here, so use the whole tray and waste nothing. Tear the sausage by hand, let the sage crisp and the kitchen smell like it, and bring the platter to the table whole rather than plating four separate dinners. That is its own small act of care.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup mild olive oil
• 8 sage leaves (for the oil)
• 3 tbsp coconut oil or other solid fat
• 1 small butternut squash, halved, seeds discarded, cut into wedges (unpeeled)
• 1 medium romanesco (or cauliflower), cut into small florets
• 6 to 8 shallots, peeled but left whole
• 8 cloves garlic, peeled but left whole
• 6 large AIP-safe pork sausages seasoned with only sea salt and herbs, casings removed and torn into 1 1/2 inch pieces (most store sausages carry excluded seasonings, so use a clean AIP-safe sausage or make skinless mini patties of ground fatty pork plus sea salt)
• 1 bunch black kale (lacinato) leaves, thick spine removed, roughly chopped
• 12 sage leaves
• 2 tbsp capers packed in salt, rinsed and dried thoroughly

Method

Heat the oven to 400 F. Gently warm the mild olive oil with the 8 sage leaves in a small saucepan over low heat until the oil is fragrant, then set it aside off the heat to infuse while everything roasts.

Divide the coconut oil between two sheet pans and put them in the oven for a few minutes to melt and heat the fat. Spread the butternut wedges, romanesco florets, whole shallots and whole garlic cloves across the two trays so nothing is crowded, turning the vegetables to coat them in the hot fat. Roast for about 20 minutes.

Pull the trays out and tuck the torn sausage pieces in among the vegetables. Return the trays to the oven and roast for another 15 to 20 minutes, until the sausage is cooked through and the vegetables are tender and caramelized at the edges.

Scatter the chopped kale, the 12 sage leaves and the rinsed capers over the trays and roast a final 5 minutes or so, until the kale is wilted with crisp edges and the sage has crisped. Cooking times vary with how thick you cut the squash, so go by color and tenderness.

To serve, lift everything onto a platter or into bowls and spoon the warm sage oil over the top.

Air fryer variation

This dish suits an air fryer well, working in batches since a basket holds less than two sheet pans. Make the sage oil on the stove as above. Toss the butternut, romanesco, shallots and garlic with the melted coconut oil and air-fry at about 380 F, shaking the basket once or twice, until tender and browned at the edges, roughly 15 to 18 minutes. Add the torn sausage partway through so it cooks through and crisps with the vegetables. Add the kale, sage leaves and capers only for the last 3 to 4 minutes, since they crisp fast in the moving air. Combine the batches on a platter and finish with the warm sage oil.

*Adapted from healingfamilyeats.com*