First of all, do yourself a favor and don’t try to peel it without baking or cooking the squash for a bit. I put mine on a cookie sheet and under the oven for 20 minutes to soften the skin a bit. You can also boil it in water. You just want to make sure to rotate it and not let it get even halfway ready. 20 minutes is perfect in the oven at 350 degrees, but 10 minutes is probably more than enough if you boil it. It is crucial that you don't let it get too tender, because it will collapse where it’s hollow as it bakes.

After you take it out and it has cooled, take a sharp knife or vegetable peeler and peel the skin off, including the white flesh.

Cut it in half and scoop out the seeds and discard them. Lay the squash halves flat side down on a piece of parchment paper in your sheet pan. Don't skip the parchment paper because the maple glaze can burn on the bottom of your pan.

Lay two wooden spoons on either side of the squash half to prevent your knife from going all the way through the squash. See image above. Then take a very sharp knife and cut thin slices, being careful not to cut through the bottom.

Repeat on both halves.

Melt your butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.

Add the maple syrup and chopped sage, salt and pepper to the butter.

Brush half of the sage butter mixture generously onto the squash with a pastry brush, don’t worry about getting into the thin slits yet. As the Hasselback squash bakes, the slices will separate a bit.

Bake it in the oven at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes, then take it out and baste it with the remaining herb butter. Return to the oven and let it bake for an additional 15 minutes.

At this point your squash is ready, but you can take it a step further and top it with chopped pecans. Toss a handful of chopped pecans in a small bowl, drizzle them with a splash of maple syrup.

Layer the maple pecans along the top/center of the squash.

Turn your oven to 450 degrees, and return the squash back into the oven and let the pecans roast for about 8-10 minutes.

Remove from oven and transfer to a flat serving tray. When you do that, make sure that you give the most support to the round, hollow part, the squash will be very tender and fragile at this point.

Garnish with fresh chopped sage.