Pumpkin Stuffed with ANYTHING
You can put anything in a pumpkin, bake it a couple of hours, and it will be so full of flavor and have you dreaming of all the cozy things! This comes originally from Dorie Greenspan and her book Around my French Table.
Ingredients
- 1 sugar pie pumpkin about 3 pounds
- ¼ pound bread cut in to cubes
- ¼ pound cheese I like Gruyere, but you can use Emmenthal, or cheddar or a mixture.
- 2 cloves garlic chopped small
- 4 strips cooked bacon cut into small pieces
- ¼ cup fresh chives snipped
- 1 Tablespoon fresh thyme
- ⅓ cup heavy cream
- salt and pepper for seasoning
- pinch of nutmeg
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or use a smaller Dutch oven or pottery bowl that fits the pumpkin nicely. It will help it hold its shape. I like to also put parchment paper in the bottom of either of these dishes as well.
- Using a sharp, sturdy knife, cut the top off of the pumpkin. It's helpful to angle your knife at 45°. Pull the top off and cut away the seeds and strings that are attached. Set the top aside and pull all of the seeds and strings from inside. A large serving spoon is sometimes helpful to scrape. When it is all cleaned out, season the inside with salt and pepper.
- Mix all of the other ingredients together except for the cream. Put them in the pumpkin.
- Mix the cream with salt, pepper, and nutmeg and pour it into the pumpkin.
- Put the cap back on the pumpkin and bake for about 2 hours, depending on the size of the pumpkin. Check it after about 90 minutes by inserting a knife through the outside. It should be able to go through easily with no resistance.
- Dorie says she likes to take the cap off during the last 20 minutes so that the liquid can bake away and the top can brown a little.
- You can serve it straight from the baking dish or transfer it very carefully to a platter. Cut it into slices with stuffing served alongside or scrape the pumpkin from the skin and mix it all together with the stuffing before dishing it out of the skin. Either way you do it will be tasty!
Notes
Other Stuffing Ideas:
- rice instead of bread (increase the amount of liquid and allow space for the rice to expand)
- lentils, rice, onions, thyme
- sausage or ground beef instead of bacon
- cubes of ham
- add blanched and chopped greens, or green peas
- beans, rice, chorizo, some Mexican spices (oregano, paprika, chili powder)
- white beans, greens, Italian sausage
- Make a sweet version kind of like bread pudding with raisins, apples, a little maple syrup, nuts, some ginger maybe?
- You name it! Anything! What's your fancy?
- How about using an acorn squash instead? Or a half-spaghetti squash?
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!