Dinner in a Pumpkin, Take 2

A few years ago, the Washington Post ran a recipe for dinner in a pumpkin. A fabulous idea, I thought, for a Halloween dinner, or for any fall evening. I modified that recipe once and loved it, but when I tried to recreate it to share here last year, it was a bust.

Of course I had to try again. This time, though, I started with Gourmet Today's pumpkin fondue recipe. It was fabulous. Essentially the recipe is a strata built inside a pumkin, with layers of bread and cheese. I upped the nutmeg and added some sage, too, because I love those flavors with pumpkin. When you serve, scoop out some pumpkin flesh from the inside of the pumpkin with each spoonful of the cheesy bread. The combination is divine.

Layering in the bread and cheese.

I think we'll have it on Halloween. I'll prep everything in advance and pop it in the oven in the late afternoon so that we can have a hot meal in our bellies before we head out for trick-or-treating. OK, just writing this recipe is making me hungry. You really have to make this recipe. It's delicious and fun, and when you're cooking for family, what more could you ask for?

Second Helping: Acorn Squash Stuffed with Curried Lentils





Lots of cheesy goodness.

Dinner in a Pumpkin

Don't worry too much about getting the amounts of the ingredients exactly right in this recipe because the amount you need will depend on the size of the pumpkin and the ratio of flesh to skin. But the ratio won't matter as long as you have enough of the cream mixture to cover all of the bread.

11-01-10 Update: I made this this weekend with a bigger pumpkin, and it made me realize how variable the results of this recipe will be. The pumpkin I used was a different variety and about 15 pounds. I found that nearly tripling gave me the right amount of filling, but the pumpkin didn't need to cook nearly as long as I thought it would and the filling was more liquid that it was with the smaller pumpkin. It was still delicious, but next time I make it with a large pumpkin I will try cooking it with the top off, and I will check it more frequently to make sure that the pumpkin itself does not get too soft.

Approximately 15 slices of baguette (about half of a large loaf)
1 pumpkin, approximately 6 inches in diameter (about 6 poounds)
1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more to sprinkle inside the pumpkin
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup vegetable stock
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 cups grated Gruyere (about 4 ounces)
2 cup grated Emmental (about 3 ounces)
1 teaspoon minced fresh sage leaves
olive oil for brushing

Put a rack in the bottom third of the oven and preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Brush the bottom of a small casserole dish with oil.

Arrange the baguette slices in a single layer on a cookie sheet and bake them in the oven until they are firm, about 5 minutes.

Cut the top off the pumpkin and set it aside. Clean the seeds and stringy fibers out of the pumpkin and off of the top. Reserve the seeds for roasting, if you like.

In a measuring cup or small bowl, whisk together the cream, vegetable stock, nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and pepper. Mix the cheeses and sage together in a separate measuring cup or a small bowl.

Sprinkle a bit of salt inside the pumpkin. Breaking the bread into small pieces if necessary, cover the bottom of the inside of the pumpkin with a layer of bread. Cover completely with a layer of cheese. Pour enough of the cream mixture over the bread and cheese to completely saturate the bread. Continue to layer the ingredients in that same order until you have used all -- or most -- of the bread and cheese. When you pour the last bit of cream mixture on, make sure that it comes high enough to soak through all of the bread, but don't let it run over the side. I(f you have any extra bread and cheese, make up a few cheese toasts. Because you can never have enough bread and cheese. . . right?)

Put the top on the pumpkin and rub the outside with a bit of olive oil. Bake until the pumpkin is tender when pierced with a knife, 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Jobs for children: I find that cutting the pumpkin is heavy knife work not suited for children. But they can brush oil into the pan and onto the outside of the pumpkin, scoop out seeds, grate cheese and nutmeg, grind pepper, and layer the bread and cheese inside the pumpkin.

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Comments

[Betsy at Zen Mama]

This looks amazing! Can't wait to try it!!

[Andrea]

Oh my gosh, this looks so good. And we even have the perfect pumpkin waiting to be baked.

[Julie]

I can't wait to try this but need to know what is Emmental- a kind of cheese?

[Margy]

Julie, Yes, it is a kind of Swiss cheese, also sometimes known as Emmentaler.

[Jamie]

I printed the recipe, handed it to my husband and told him it is what I want for my birthday dinner next week!

[DeeDee]

How beautiful! I forwarded the link to our friends in Portland, OR. We are both going to try it and compare results. I picked the pumpkin yesterday during school field trip. Fun!

[Jamie]

We made this for dinner tonight and it was delicious. I must have done something wrong since ours ended up with a lot more liquid in it than I expected. Our pumpkin was too big, but I had such a hard time finding one the right size. All in all, it was a delicious recipe!!

[Margy]

Jamie, Thanks for the input. This recipe is a tough one to write precisely because of the variability that we will have in choosing the size and variety of pumpkin. I made it again in a larger pumpkin, too, and had a different experience so I added an additional note to the recipe. Thanks for coming by and trying this recipe. I hope you had a great birthday.

[Catherine]

Thanks so much for sharing this recipe - I made it last night using leftover fall pumpkins. It was the first night of December so it was a perfect way to say farewell to Fall. We all had fun eating out of the little pumpkins - they were really delicious. I used half-n-half instead of regular cream - and it worked fine.