Baked pumpkin recipe

I don’t know about you but in my experience the best recipes are tasty, nutritious, satisfying, and relatively easy to prepare; I’d be happy if all my recipes met those criteria. But what if you could go one better? What if the result was also fun to eat? Michelin star chefs often aim to serve up a fun or novel experience with their dishes, but it can be harder to do this at home. With my baked pumpkin recipe you've a dish that accomplishes that and it’s very, very, timely.

I always look forward to this time of year when the opportunity once again comes round to eat baked pumpkin or squash. They make for some of my favourite recipes because they’re easy (providing you allow the time), tasty, and best of all fun to eat. This is because you use the pumpkin as your bowl, fill it with a delicious cheesy, creamy, herby, garlicky, white wine sauce, and eat spoonfuls of it along with crusty bread and salad. Yum!

Baked pumpkin is also very adaptable. I have bought small pumpkins to eat just for myself (as in the photo) and large pumpkins (such as in this recipe) and served them at dinner parties (if you do this don’t be surprised if every last morsel gets eaten). If you're having a Halloween party this would of course be perfect.

So… the recipe. It really is as simple as choosing an appropriately sized pumpkin or squash for however many people will be eating it - ideally one that is going to sit flat on a baking tray - cutting off the top, hollowing it out, baking it, and filling it with your sauce/cheese mix roughly halfway through, then serving the whole thing as it is. It’s not difficult.

The recipe below will serve four to six people. If you just want to serve one or two people reduce the quantities by about forty per cent. I find a 1kg pumpkin will do for one person (it’s difficult to find them smaller than that). If it looks too big for one meal simply cut about one third or even half off the top, put it in the fridge and use it later. Or just blend anything left over into a soup. Also, most recipes I’ve come across recommend making the sauce in the pumpkin but personally I like to make it in a small saucepan then pour it in since that way I can adjust it to my taste. Try both ways.

Does it matter if you use pumpkin or squash? Not especially. A good squash is usually denser and sweeter but since you’re eating it with quite a strong flavoured sauce I find the regular cheap orange pumpkins do just fine.  

Ingredients

(Serves 4)

·         1 x 1.75kg pumpkin or squash

·         1 tbsp olive oil

·         Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

·         2 garlic cloves, bashed

·         1 rosemary sprig, bashed

·         2 tbsp dry white wine (add more if you feel it needs it)

·         2 tsp cornflour

·         100g cheddar, grated

·         100g Gruyère or Parmesan, grated

·         70g crème fraîche

·         A little freshly grated nutmeg

·         30g butter

·         Small handful of sage leaves (optional)

Method

1 Heat the oven to 160 C fan gas 4. Slice the top off the pumpkin, scoop out and discard the seeds. Drizzle the inside with oil and season with salt and pepper. Put the garlic and rosemary into the hollow, replace the lid, or cover with foil (if you’re saving the lid for later), and transfer to an ovenproof pan. Roast in the oven for 30 min, test, and if needed keep baking until it is just tender, checking every 15 min or so.

2 Remove from the oven, discard the lid or foil and increase the temperature to 180C fan/gas 6.

3 Blend the wine, crème fraiche, and cornflour until smooth. Combine the two cheeses and season with a little pepper. Spoon half the cheese mixture into the pumpkin and add the crème fraîche and wine mixture, then the remaining cheeses. Alternatively, combine the crème fraîche and wine mixture with extra garlic and herbs of your choice in a small pan, warm this through, then pour it in to the pumpkin, mixing in the cheese. Top with some nutmeg.

4 Return the pumpkin to the oven and bake, uncovered, for 25-30 min, until the cheese is bubbling and lightly golden. Add some of the scooped pumpkin seeds to the baking tray and toast them while it’s cooking being sure to take them out before they burn.

5 While the pumpkin is baking prepare a bowl of salad and crusty bread.

6 Just before serving, if you’re going to add fresh sage, melt the butter in a small saucepan over a medium heat and as soon as the foam dies down, add the sage leaves. Cook for about 2 min until the butter is browned and the sage crisp. Pour over the cheese. If you don’t have fresh sage add some dried sage to the herb mix and top with toasted pumpkin seeds (since this lends a nice crunchy texture). You may also wish to add some extra cheese to the top then brown it with a heat gun for extra affect.

7  Transfer the pumpkin to a large bowl or plate and place the whole thing on the dining table along with the salad and bread and allow your guests to scoop chunks into their bowls (remember it will be hot). Don’t forget that you can eat the skin too, which is full of fibre.

While this goes well with medium bodied red wine trust me when I say that an off-dry pinot gris is heavenly with it. An oaky Chardonnay would be good too.