Farmers' Market Friday - Treats not Tricks {Everything in a Pumpkin}

One Halloween, when I was about 10 years old or so, my mother found a recipe in a magazine that entailed stuffing a pumpkin with a bunch of stuff (including ground beef) and putting it in the oven to cook while the family was out trick or treating. The goal was that when you returned from the fun, the dinner would be complete in the cooked pumpkin. Well, that recipe was an atrocity. What resulted was a soupy, foul mess - in a pumpkin. We ended up having grilled cheese that night and that pumpkin was thrown out in the brush for the for the foxes and other animals to come and have at it. It was definitely more of a trick than a treat!

So, last year when my good friend, KPQ, raved about an "everything in a pumpkin" recipe from a Dorie Greenspan cookbook that we both own, I was skeptical. In fact, I was so scarred from that first foray into pumpkin cooking that I wouldn't even consider another go. This year, the Greenspan recipe resurfaced yet again as a can't miss recipe. Considering the pumpkin-palooza at the farmers' market, and that this recipe didn't include ground beef, I decided to give it a whirl.

I can happily report that I'm glad I finally gave in after some 30 years or so. This one is a real treat and certainly something you'd be happy to come home to after trick or treating or anytime on your fall table.

Items from the market:

• pie pumpkin
• country bread of your choice
• bacon
• cheese 

Everything in a Pumpkin

(adapted from Dorie Greenspan)

• 1 pumpkin (about 3 lbs)
• 1/4 lb crusty bread, cut into 1/2"chunks
• 1/4 lb cheese, cut into 1/2"chunks (I used Gruyere, but found it overpowering for the delicate flavors of the rest of the dish - I would try a milder Gouda or even a Cheddar or mixture)
• 4 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 lb bacon, cooked crisp and chopped
• 1/4 C green onions, sliced thinly
• about 1/3 C heavy cream

1. Before heating oven, place your pumpkin on a baking sheet and into the oven to test for size/placement of the oven racks. Move racks as needed to ensure pumpkin will fit and not hit the top heating element. Remove pumpkin and while preparing it for cooking, heat oven to 350F.
2. Using a sharp knife,carefully cut the cap off of the top of the pumpkin like you would if you were going to carve a jack o'lantern. Be sure to make a large enough opening to allow you to clean out all of the pumpkin seeds and strings. Once you've cleaned out the pumpkin and the cap, season the inside of the pumpkin with salt and pepper.
3. Place pumpkin on a parchment or foil lined, rimmed baking sheet.
4. Toss bread cubes, cheese, garlic, green onions and bacon together in a large bowl. Pack this mixture into the pumpkin. The pumpkin should be filled to the top. (I had to press my filling in to make it all fit.) If you don't have enough filling, add some more bread and a bit more cheese. Pour the cream into the pumpkin (you don't want your mixture to be floating in cream, but you do want to make sure the bread gets moistened - you'll need to eyeball this and add just enough cream.)
5. Put the cap on the pumpkin and bake it for 2 hours (check on it at the 90 minute mark) Once everything in the pumpkin is bubbly and the shell of the pumpkin is soft (can be pierced easily) it is almost ready. Remove the cap during the last 20 minutes of cooking to allow the excess liquid to bake off and the top of the stuffing can get a crusty brown layer. 
6. Once complete, carefully remove from the oven.(it will be a little unwieldy to remove from the oven).
7. Serving suggestions: 1) you can slice wedges of the pumpkin as is and serve. 2) stir the whole thing together mixing the cooked pumpkin flesh into the stuffing mixture and serving with a spoon. - we served in wedges and enjoyed that.

This dish definitely changed my attitude about stuffed pumpkin dishes. I will definitely do this one again, with the only change being the type of cheese I use. As I said, we found the Gruyere to be a bit too pungent and would prefer a creamier, more mild flavor to go with the sweetness of the pumpkin and the saltiness of the bacon. This is a great fall dish and I hope you give it a try!

Happy Cooking!

sld

Disclosure: I was invited by Wolf Ranch Farmer's Market to visit and meet the vendors and was provided Market Money with which to purchase ingredients for use in the Farmers' Market Friday posts.  I was not compensated to write this article and all opinions are my own.

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