It’s pumpkin week. My early years in California fostered a fascination with all things Halloween, and as such I have a particular affection and wonder for pumpkins. Right now, the greengrocer’s shelves are groaning with more cooking varieties than you will see for the rest of the year, along with well-shaped, thin-skinned jack-o’-lanterns for carving.
I’ve had a huge, pale-green, crown prince squash sitting at the end of the kitchen table for a month – it will sit there in its ornamental beauty until I have the resolve to hack into it. A pumpkin of this size needs a big sharp knife and a bit of attitude. But don’t be put off: the advantage of these harder-skinned winter squashes is that they hold their shape in the oven and are less watery than the late summer varieties. Their flavour is also more intense than summer squashes, which suits this week’s pie down to the ground.
While these giants of the vegetable world will keep for months, the longer you store them for, the longer they will take to cook. They are also often large enough to make an entire week’s worth of dinners. I cut huge ones into quarters and store the cut pumpkin in the fridge for soups, curries, stews, this pie, or just a simple roasting.
Avoid pumpkins that have been grown specifically for carving at all costs if you want to cook with them. Trust me, I’ve tried to make them taste good! A normal cooking pumpkin can still be easily carved for Halloween and the scraped out flesh will make a quick, stellar soup that will be ready in the time it takes you to create a jack-o’-lantern.
I urge you to buy a pumpkin and cook with it this week. They are astoundingly cheap, especially in the days after Halloween, and despite what you might think, you don’t need to be Edward Scissorhands to tackle one.
Savoury gruyere and pumpkin pie
I’m not a big fan of pumpkin pie as dessert, but this cheese-spiked version gets a lot of airtime in my kitchen.
Serves 4-6
1 tbsp olive oil
25g unsalted butter
1 onion, thinly sliced
450g pumpkin or butternut squash, peeled and cut into 15mm cubes
1 tsp coconut or light brown sugar
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
2 eggs, lightly beaten, plus 1 lightly beaten egg, for brushing
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
120g gruyere, grated
25g parmesan, freshly grated (I use a vegetarian one)
A small bunch of sage leaves, fried
For the pasty
300g plain flour, I use spelt
30g cheddar, grated
150g unsalted butter, chilled, chopped
1 For the pastry, put the flour, cheddar and butter in a food processor with a pinch of salt. Process until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Add 80ml chilled water and process until the mixture comes together to form a smooth ball. Wrap in cling film and chill for 30 minutes.
2 Meanwhile, make the filling. Fry the onion in the oil and butter over a low heat for 5 minutes, or until soft. Add the cubes of pumpkin and cook, stirring occasionally, for 2-3 minutes.
3 Add about 125ml water and bring to a simmer. Cover, return the heat to low and cook for 20 minutes, or until the pumpkin is soft. Stir in the sugar and balsamic vinegar, then allow to cool.
4 Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas 6. Line a large baking tray with baking paper. Roll out your pastry on a lightly floured board into a 30cm disc and put this on the prepared baking tray.
5 Put the cooled pumpkin mixture in a large bowl and mash it roughly, leaving a few bigger pieces for texture. Add 2 beaten eggs and season well with salt and black pepper, then stir in half the gruyere.
6 Sprinkle the remaining gruyere over the pastry, leaving a 2cm border. Fill the centre of the pastry with the pumpkin mixture, then fold over the 2cm border and roughly pleat. Brush the pastry edge with the remaining beaten egg and sprinkle with parmesan. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden and cooked through.
7 Serve the pie warm, garnished with fried sage leaves, if using.
Four-ingredient pumpkin soup
The perfect recipe for any trimmings post-pumpkin-carving. If you will forgive me a little cooking oil and salt you’ll only need these four ingredients.
Serves 4
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 tbsp fennel seeds, plus 1 tsp
1kg pumpkin
1 red chilli, finely chopped
1 Finely chop the red onion and add it to a warm, oiled pan with the fennel seeds. Sweat it slowly for 10 minutes, or until it is soft and sweet.
2 Meanwhile, cut any skin from your pumpkin and scoop out the seeds, put the seeds into a sieve, put the sieve into a bowl of warm water and leave the seeds to sit.
3 Chop the pumpkin into 2cm pieces and, once the onions are ready, add the squash to the pan. Cover the lot with 2 litres of boiling water, add the chilli and leave to simmer for 25-30 minutes or until the squash is tender.
4 Meanwhile, pull the pumpkin seeds from their orange casing and wash well. Add to a hot frying pan with a little oil and salt and 1 tsp fennel seeds. Toast the seeds, stirring all the time until they are golden brown all over.
5 Once the pumpkin is cooked, blitz the soup with a hand blender until it’s creamy. Serve in warm bowls with the toasted seeds and, if you like, some good buttered bread.
- Anna Jones is a chef, writer and author. Her latest book is The Modern Cook’s Year (Fourth Estate); annajones.co.uk; @we_are_food
