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Pumpkin, Packed with Bread and Cheese: A Recipe in Progress
As I mentioned, I bought my first pumpkin of the season last week and this is what Idid with it: I hollowed it out and stuffed it with bread cubes, cheese, garlic and cream, slid it into the oven to bake until everything under the cap bubbled away merrily and then served it for lunch.
The idea for this dish came from my friend Catherine in France. Her husband has a farm just outside of Lyon and pumpkin is one of his crops. In true French fashion, Catherine sent me a charming sketch of a recipe and, after I made it, I realized that a sketch is about the best you can do with this tasty dish, since pumpkins come in such imprecise sizes, cheeses differ and baking times depend on how long it takes the pumpkin to get soft enough to prick with a knife. As Catherine said when she turned this family favorite over to me, "I hope you will put it to good use, knowing that it's destined to evolve -- and maybe even be improved." I hestitate to put what I did in recipe format, since it's hardly a real recipe, but it was so good that I want you to know about it while pumpkins are plentiful, so here it is:A ROUGH RECIPE FOR A REALLY GOOD STUFFED PUMPKIN
Makes 2 generous or 4 genteel servings
1 pumpkin, about 2 1/2 to 3 pounds
4 ounces stale bread, sliced thin, then cut into 1/2-inch chunks
4 ounces cheese, such as Gruyere, Swiss, Blue, Cheddar or a combination, cut into 1/2-inch chunks
2-4 cloves garlic (to taste), peeled, germ removed and coarsely chopped
About 1/3 cup heavy cream
Freshly grated nutmeg
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Either line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone baking mat or find a Dutch oven that's the same diameter as the pumpkin. (If you bake the pumpkin in a casserole, it will keep its shape, but it will also stick to the casserole, so you'll have to serve it from the pot, which is a rustic, appealingly homey way to serve it. If you bake it on a sheet, you can present it free-standing, if it doesn't collapse in the oven. I was lucky this time, but when I make it again tonight with a larger pumpkin, I'm not going to push my luck - I'm going to put it in a Dutch oven.)
Using a very sturdy knife, cut a cap off the top of the pumpkin. This isn't an easy job - I went around the top of the pumpkin with my knife at a 45-degree angle to get a nice size cap. Clear away any seeds and strings from the cap and hold it aside while you scoop out the seeds and filaments inside the pumpkin. (Hold onto this goop -- you can separate the seeds from the filaments and roast them.) Season the inside of the pumpkin with salt and pepper and put it on the sheet or in the casserole.
Now you have a choice, you can either toss the bread, cheese and garlic together in a bowl, then pack it into the pumpkin, or you can alternate layers of bread and cheese and scatter the garlic here and there. (I mixed everything together.) Either way, the filling should go into the pumpkin and fill it well. You might have a little too much filling or you might need to add to it -- it's hard to give exact amounts. Season the cream with salt, pepper and several gratings of fresh nutmeg and pour the cream into the pumpkin. Again, you might have too much or too little. You don't want the ingredients to swim in cream, but you do want to get a feeling that they're moistened.
Put the cap back in place and bake the pumpkin for about 2 hours -- check after 90 minutes -- or until everything inside the pumpkin is bubbly and the flesh of the pumpkin is tender enough to be pierced easily with the tip of a knife. I removed the cap during the last 20 minutes or so of baking so that the top could brown.
As you can see, I cut the pumpkin into wedges, so we could cut a cube of pumpkin and have it with some of the stuffing, but you can also leave the pumpkin whole and use a big spoon to scoop out pumpkin and filling. You could even scrape the pumpkin into the filling and mix it all up.
Caution: If you want to spoon out the pumpkin and the filling or try mixing it, you better bake the pumpkin in a casserole because you'll need to support the sides.
Playing around: I think you could play around with the filling, adding bacon or ham, herbs (a little thyme might be nice) or nuts.
If you make it, I hope you'll let me know what you did, how it came out and how you liked it. As Catherine said, the recipe is bound to evolve. It is, after all, a recipe-in-progress and having it be a communal recipe-in-progress can only make it better -- and more fun!
LAST NIGHT'S PUMPKIN: I made the pumpkin again last night, adding bacon that I'd cut into slender strips and cooked before mixing it in with the bread, cheese and garlic. I also added thyme and lots of snipped chives. It was so, so good, but here's what I think made the big difference -- the way I served it: I dug into the pumpkin with a big spoon, pulling the pumpkin meat into the filling and then mixing up everything. The consistency was like wonderfully chunky mashed potatoes. Served in hearty portions with or followed by a salad, the dish is a perfect cold-weather main course; served in spoonfuls, it's going to be great alongside our Thanksgiving's turkey.
53 Comments
What a great idea for a vegetarian alternative to stuffed turkey! I'm sure a vegan version could be devised, too.
That's one smart friend you have!
I agree, adding thyme or sage would be tasty. Looks good as is, though.
This basic recipe was in Sunset Magazine back in the late 70s or early 80s, although I can no longer find my copy. It's a lovly Fall dish, and I've also made it in the mini pumpkins for a cute individual serving. In that case you need to use crouton-sized bread.
Wow, this looks amazing! I have never had anything like this, but what a wonderful (and delicious) idea. I love recipes like this where it's so easy to adapt them and play around with them. I can only imagine the fun possibilities with this!
Great idea. This is the first pumpkin recipe of the season for me. I'm excited to give it a try, and I know I will definitely try playing with it, maybe along the lines of what I use to stuff my turkey. This will be fun! Thanks, Dorie.
This looks wonderful- what a delightful new way to cook with pumpkin! Thank you for the lovely idea
Mmm! It's still hitting the high 80s and humid here in the Midwest, but I can't wait for the Indian corn to show up at the markets. Wonder how this one would turn out with one of those green Kobacha pumpkins...
Hey, Dorie... can you explain the instruction about degerming the garlic? I've peeled a million cloves in my day, but I don't remember another layer or bit to remove... unless you mean the dry bit that the clove snuggles up to the head with (removed during peeling, sometimes sliced if it's really stuck on there). Thanks!
I find pumpkin starchy enough, so I don't fill it with bread but with ground meat instead, as you can see here. But I understand this can be a good vegetarian option. Sage surely goes well with pumpkin and I also like various nuts with it (chestnut, pistachio etc.) and mushrooms are a good combination, too. I might do a mushroom and nut filled version as a vegan (and lean!) alternative.
Dana, you're right -- I've got a smart friend. And I think you're also right about the possibility of a vegan version. The recipe is really one cooks can play around with.
Mary, I think sage could be just the ticket.
Abra, I'm not surprised to learn that you've seen the recipe in another form; it's too good not to have been made before. And I love the idea of mini-pumpkins.
Erin, I'm with you -- I really like to be able to have an "outline" for a recipe and room to make it my own.
Lori Lynn, I think that stuffing the pumpkin with turkey stuffing could be great. Do that and you might want to follow Abra's idea and use mini-pumpkins. Wouldn't that be a beautiful presentation for T-giving?
Emily Rose, I hope you'll make some version of the recipe and enjoy it.
Katje, I think you could take this basic idea and use it with any kind of squash.
As for "degerming" garlic. The germ is the slender, green center of a clove of garlic. When garlic is very young, you might not even see the germ and in young garlic the germ is usually very mild tasting. As garlic gets bigger and older, the germ grows and it can be quite strong, even bitter, so to be on the safe side, I usually split the clove and cut out the germ.
Hand, thank you so much for the link to your site. I love what you did with the pumpkin.
I'm big into pumpkins and winter squashes and am always looking for new ways to prepare them. This idea sounds fantastic - my mouth is watering just thinking about it. I was also wondering if it would work to use this method for some sort of savory pumpkin dip for entertaining. I'll do some experimenting and let you know if I come up with anything good.
This looks wonderful! Pumpkins are one of my favorite things about the fall. I am going to have to give this a try. It will be a nice change from pie.
I make something very similar quite often as a "vegetarian option" when I have a bunch of people for dinner. I use exactly the same stuffing as I use for a chicken - fresh breadcrumbs, sage, onion, parsley, salt & pepper, and a bit of melted butter. Then I pour cream over as you do. I find you can speed up the cooking time by microwaving it for 15 mins or so on high before putting it in the oven.
I usually use a buttercup squash, which has a VERY hard dark green skin with quite dry sweet flesh, and can take an awfully long time in the oven to cook through without the microwave kick-start.
That sounds and looks delicious Dorie! I think North Americans usually think of sweet things when they think of pumpkins, like pumpkin pie and cake. It is such a wonderful vegetable to roast and serve in a savoury way though. I love it just cut into slabs and roasted with some garlic, sage and butter. It's lovely. The edges get all caramelized and the garlic just gives it that extra special flavour. I grate Parmesan cheese over mine, which makes it really yummy!
It looks delicious and the addition of bacon sounds wonderful!
What a wonderful fall treat! I will have to make this for company some time. So festive and fun!
That spoonful looks exactly like what I had for dinner Saturday night! (ggg) Couldn't stop eating it! So good, so rich, so comfort-foody. What a lucky boy I am!
This sounds really interesting, I don't cook with fresh pumpkin nearly enough.
what an exceptional and creative idea. this looks great, and I've personally never seen something like this. I shall put it on my must try list. Thank you, Dorie, for another fabulous idea.
Dorie - I love the idea of the stuffed pumpkin! I may get brave and make that soon. Thanks for inspiring me to be a better baker and I love being a part of TWD.
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That looks so delicious! I think a blue cheese version would be especially yummy.
This reminds me of another recipe I've always wanted to try, from Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book: carbonada, an Argentinian beef stew baked in a pumpkin.
I made this last night for thirteen people, and have made it on two other occasions. It was splendid! I make it with Comte cheese and baguette layering it, then fill the pumpkin with cream, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. I was delighted to see it on your blog the day before it was going to make it.
What a wonderful recipe! I can't wait to try it. A fellow ex-pat in Brazil told me about it. Pumpkin is used year round here in a lot of savory dishes. There is a dish on the coast called Camarao na Moranga which is a shrimp and cheese stew baked in a pumpkin. You scoop out delicious pieces of pumpkin meat with the stew. Your recipe reminded me of it with the bread being inside. I will definitely give it a try. Thank you!
I tried it and it was great -- I just posted photos at my blog, maefood.blogspot.com along with details of what I did. Basically, I used the onion, celery, sage, and oregano flavors of turkey stuffing, and used milk and egg as the liquid. Thanks for the idea.
Hi - I made this last night and put diced onion in 1/4 cup butter and slowly sauteed until golden, then added a huge clove of garlic, diced. Then, put the butter onion mixture over the bread and cheese (used pizza cheese blend from Trader Joes). Then, heated the cream with chopped sage and reduced slightly. Mixed together and added one swiss chard leaf, sliced into 1/8 inch strips. I will report back when I hear comments from the family I made it for (new baby in the house). Cross your fingers! Like to add more green to the filling just because orange and green look so good together.....I highly recommend Kabocha squash (sp?) = it is amazingly yummy when roasted!
Dorie, thank you for such a great idea. I've started to see the first batches of pumpkins arriving in the area and can't wait to try this recipe out. As soon as I make mine, I'll post a pic and let you know how I made it my own. Can't wait!
Dorie - My mother used to make a pumpkin stew just like this when I was a kid. My mom passed away 4 years ago and I don't have the recipe, but I have fond memories of this fall favorite. Today I got a large Long Island Cheese squash at our farmer's market and it inspired me to look around for the recipe again. I vaguely remember it and was thinking of just trying to recreate it myself, but I'm so glad I found your recipe! I will give it a try this week, and now my little girl can have this as a fall memory, too. THANKS! Carrie Turner - Asheville, NC
oh my goodness! This looks absolutely delicious. I am definitely going to give it a try this week, and will post some pics on my blog. So wholesome, and comforting and autumnal! Thanks for the great idea!
I made my first stuffed pumpkin and it was basically a success. I learned a few things in the process and will be making more of these in the future. I baked mine in a dutch oven, but made a foil and parchment sling so I could lift it out onto a serving platter. It worked great. I used bread, onion, apple, garlic, sage, allspice, gruyere, and hazelnuts for a little crunch. Except for a huge amount of liquid let off by the pumpkin it was wonderful. You can see pictures and get the details at http://blog.tablefare.com. Thanks for the inspiration Dorie!
That recipe sounds marvelous (and a great way to do away with spare dry bread).
Sage would also go nicely as herb and I think a smoked cheese would also be quite nice.
You could also add chestnuts and/or hazelnuts in there.
I tried this for dinner tonight, and used a kabocha (Japanese pumpkin) since the orange variety are extremely rare/expensive here in Japan (though we're going to break down and buy a couple to carve for Halloween).
I also used raisin bread, and mixed the pumpkin in at the end. It all melded into a beautiful, gooey, pumpkin stuffing with just the right balance of sweet and savory.
Thanks for the great recipe and ideas--I think that this dish will be making more than a couple of appearances at dinner as the weather gets colder!
I tried this last night - I used a small pumpkin, thyme, sage and potato bread from my farmer's market. I found some interesting garlic jack cheese, so I used that instead of garlic; I think additional garlic would have been a bit over the top with the cheese. It was enough for two meals and I'll be making this again. I was thinking of variations with mushrooms, oysters or cranberries (not together necessarily.) to go with Thanksgiving dinner.
Oh MY! I couldn't resist trying this dish the same day I read about it; we enjoyed it two nights ago and it completely met expectations...we thought it would be outstanding and it was. I stuffed pumpkin with leftover ciabatta, sauteed bacon & onion, chunks of Manchego and lots of garlic (I found it can TAKE a lot of garlic). The two of us ate half of it for dinner with a green salad; we enoyed the rest of the stuffing for breakfast (heaven!) the next morning....and I made a curried pumpkin soup from the rest of the pumpkin. Thank you, Dorie, for this spectacular inspiration. I'm thinking about the many, many variations.....and am stocking up on little sweet pie pumpkins!
Really fabulous! I added chopped/browned panceta and used sage and swiss cheese, but really it's just the beginning. There is really so much one can do with this. Thanks for the great idea!
hi i was loooking for something just like this. i made such a thing 30 yrs ago when my daughter was young. i'd have a thursday night special every week where i'd try new things- and offer left overs for anyone not interested. many yrs later when my daughter was in college she reminded me of it and said how much she'd enjoyed it. who knew!?! when no one gives feedback, we may never venture with a new dish again. so now, she and i are on holiday in a place where we had to bring in all our food for the week. daughter suggested trying this again!! and recalling memories of those pleasant years so long ago. thanks, as i was unsure in which direction to strike to repeat something i'd almost forgotten. all the comments were Very helpful. nt
Hi Again - the pumpkin was a GREAT success - Kabocha is lovely to use, sauteing onion/garlic is lovely, swiss chard leaf is good addition (see earlier comments). Just wanted to say how yummy this recipe is, so perfect for the season, so lovely to have a pumpkin in your oven!
Wow. I'm impressed by the comments from so many who have already baked this recipe, and who have time for the pumpkin version. I'm waiting for a dinner party later this month for the pumpkin. I adapted the recipe the first day it was posted, using acorn squash, Gruyere, German farmer's cheese and thyme. Baked it 1 hour with foil, 25 minutes without. It was fabulous! The acorn squash were small, but it would easily serve four as a generous side dish as I may have used proportionately more cheese.
Tonight's version is in the oven now using acorn squash, Cypress Farms Humboldt Fog Goat Cheese (an amazing bleu-ish cheese, you must try!) and herbs de provence. Thanks for the great, easily adaptable recipe! Sincerely, Kristine
Well I went all out for the blue cheese version last night. Took a 2.5 lb sugar pumpkin, cubed day old baguette, 1/4 lb of country gorganzola, 1 pint heavy cream, 3 TBS chives, 2 cloves garlic, nutmeg, salt and pepper. I "buttered" each piece of bread with some cheese in in order to get is spread evenly, mixed it into the garlic and chives and loosly packed the pumpkin. Mixed the cream with nutmeg, salt and pepper and poured it in. I found I had to bake it longer because the baking dish insulated the bottom of the pumpkin. Everyone was sceptical, but then ate the WHOLE thing.
Dorie, I've made this twice already and it's all I ever want to eat anymore! What have you wrought?!
The day you posted this I was wondering what else to do with a gorgeous load of chicken-of-the-woods mushroom (at least 10 lbs of the stuff) that we found on a walk just a day earlier. So as soon as I saw your post and your photographs I couldn’t wait to try it with our mushrooms.
I cooked some of our chicken-of-the-woods with onions and shallots in butter, also lots of sage from the garden, added white wine, chicken stock, and cream, reducing each liquid down before the next addition to let the mushrooms soak it all up.
Sautéed up and crumbled some sausage, rummaged around for some leftover cheese scraps (Comte, Gruyere, and Piave Vecchio) and leftover cornbread and some crusty ends of an Italian loaf. Tossed it all together with the mushroom mixture. A bit of salt and pepper, a few grates of nutmeg, a touch more cream, and into the oven it went.
The hardest part really is waiting for it to come out of the oven. It’s a brilliant dish, so satisfying and hearty and really works with whatever needs to get used up in the kitchen.
Just days later, after another foraging trip we found ourselves with even more wild mushrooms (regular oysters, elm oysters, maitakes, and velvet foots) which we cooked up with more of the chicken-of-the woods the same way as before and baked another pumpkin with the mixed wild mushrooms, sausage, Leerdammer cheese, and 3-day-old brioche. What a wonderful meal for a fall day!
If you were close by, we’d be on your doorstep with a basket of wild mushrooms to thank you but since you aren’t and we can’t, I can only say thank you, Dorie, for all that you share with us!
I went today and there were no more small pumpkins so used delicata squash with lots of chives and ham. What a great dish. I love it when people write in about how they dealt with the recipes. Great.
i used delicata squash and it was great.
I just made it with Feta cheese (it was what I had in the fridge)... and it was delicious. However, next time I'm going to use corn bread in place of regular bread... and I'll probably use Gruyere. I LOVE the idea of this dish and I love the idea of old corn bread!
Thank you for posting this recipe as I have been searching a different way of cooking pumpkin other than dessert. I have followed your simple recipe (chives & bacon) and mixed Pont-l'Évêque & Point Reyes Blue Cheese and to my delight this is absolument délicieux! And you couldn't be more right that this recipe is destined to evolve as I am thinking of what other ingredients I can put in this lovely pumpkin dish. Merci beaucoup.
I haven't tried this yet but when I do I am going to try a few heaping tablespoons of some canned pumpkin filling. And instead of plain stale bread, I'm going to use stale cinnamon bread.( Pepperidge Farms is one I like). Then of course a few dashes of pumpkin pie spice. I just can't think of the right cheese to compliment this though. Anyone out there have a suggestion? This is a great jumping off point of a recipe that could start a new tradition at holiday meals! Thanks.
I AM TRYING YOUR RECEIPE TOMORROW FOR MY DINNER PARTY. I WILL LET YOU KNOW HOW IT COMES OUT. I CAN'T WAIT. IT SOUNDS SO YUMMY. THANK YOU.
I started with your recipe - used swiss, gouda and parmesan cheeses, added a bit of white wine and rosemary and left out the nutmeg. It was a huge success. How can I send you a picture? The squash stayed mostly intact and sliced beautifully. It's sure to be something I'll so again with variations.
I made this last night. It was great. We added sauteed sausage and onions and it was a complete meal. You are right this recipe has room to grow. Thank you for sharing. You can see pictures here http://gengandchip.wordpress.com/2008/11/13/wednesdays-with-geng-and-chip-4/
we just made sometime like this .... so good! May make over Thanksgiving, too!
Used 6 lb organic pumpkin and the basic recipe. I added mild Italian sausage, mushrooms, pine nuts, and a few herbs.
It came out perfectly and the sausage added just enough additional flavor.
Thanks
I made this tonight with stale Pepperidge Farm Whole Wheat sliced bread and swiss cheese (as well as the other ingredients). I pretty much followed the recipe as written except I didn't measure anything and my nutmeg was not freshly grated. I packed the mixture in very tightly and it rose out of the pumpkin in the oven.
It was a hit with my 7 and 9 yo girls, who also thought that sausage and/or apple would be a good addition. Thanks for the great idea.
I was inspired but lactose intolerant, so I went for a carnivorous angle over Thanksgiving weekend
...carved the top of pumpkin to open and get the seeds out just like a jack-o-lantern...
1 lb pork sausage - light browned with 1/2 diced onion
Mixed in 1/2 bag of cubed stuffing with seasoning
1.5 - 2 cups of turkey broth (chicken would do )
hefty handful of fresh cranberries
Lightly steamed 12 brussel sprouts, then quartered
garlic powder and black pepper to season
Mix and stuff the empty shell loosely (tuck but not compact) and place top with stem back on. - - just like a jack-o-lantern.
Place in shallow bowl and fill with beer - water would do, but a beer was open and on hand...
Cook at 450 for first hour and then turn down to 375 for another 30 minutes or until pumpkin is soft. May need to replenish water/beer to not dry out.
Serve and encourage all to scrap sides so stuffing and vegetable are served together.
What I would do next time...
* Keep a few seeds to sow for next year since I did roast them with salt and ate them all.
* My husband thought to lightly season the pumpkin interior before stuffing. He suggested even a few dried red hot pepper flakes for punch or just salt and pepper since not all the flesh of the vegetable was able to absorb the stuffing seasoning.
* Perhaps use a stout beer instead of a lager
I've been making stuffed pumpkin for decades (2.8). Mine is w/o cheese, but w/lots of fruit, vegs, fresh & dried spices/herbs (dried cranberries, fresh apples, dried apricots, celery, leeks, shallots, onions, roasted garlic, fresh/dried herbs, nuts-roasted pecans, slivered almonds, pepitas). It varies somewhat every year, but my family loves it. Just consider the stuffing to be a savory bread pudding and work it creatively.
I've been making stuffed pumpkin for decades (2.8). Mine is w/o cheese, but w/lots of fruit, vegs, fresh & dried spices/herbs (dried cranberries, fresh apples, dried apricots, celery, leeks, shallots, onions, roasted garlic, fresh/dried herbs, nuts-roasted pecans, slivered almonds, pepitas). It varies somewhat every year, but my family loves it. Just consider the stuffing to be a savory bread pudding and work it creatively.