It took a bit of time (waiting while it baked), but was otherwise quite easy to do. The house smelled fantastic and there is no doubt that the original recipe writers were correct to dub it "Pumpkin Stuffed with Everything Good." I mean, there's bacon, and cheese! - need I say more? For our version, I made some substitutions, and because the pumpkin I picked up turned out to be 6 pounds, I doubled everything....
INGREDIENTS
- 1 pumpkin, about 6 pounds
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
- 3 rice cakes, chopped into chunks (based on the idea given in the original recipe of, instead of bread, using rice in general)
- 1/2 pound Gruyere cheese, cubed
- 8 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
- 8 strips of bacon, cooked until crisp, drained, and chopped
- Dried chives (I used up all that we had left, probably a tablespoon and a half)
- 1 tablespoon dried thyme
- 2/3 cup heavy cream
- Freshly grated nutmeg
PROCESS
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with Silpat (or parchment paper).
2. Cut a cap out of the top of the pumpkin (think Halloween jack-o'-lantern). Clean out the seeds and strings, season the inside of the pumpkin generously with salt and pepper, and put it on the baking sheet.
3. Toss the rice cakes, cheese, garlic, bacon, and herbs together in a bowl. Season with pepper, and pack the mix into the pumpkin.
The pumpkin should be well filled. You might have a little too much filling, or you might need to add to it. I definitely could have used more filling, but since I had already depleted all of several of the ingredients I had on hand, I just left it as is.
4. Stir the cream with the nutmeg and some salt and pepper and pour it 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 them nicely moistened. (Don't worry, it's hard to go wrong here.)
5. Put the cap in place and bake the pumpkin for about 2 hours, or until everything inside the pumpkin is bubbling and the flesh of the pumpkin is tender enough to be pierced easily with the tip of a knife. As the original recipe writers suggested, I removed the cap during the last 20 minutes or so, so that any excess moisture could bake away and the top of the stuffing could brown a little.
6. When the pumpkin is ready, very carefully (it's heavy, hot, and wobbly) bring it to the table or transfer it to a platter that you'll bring to the table.
7. Allow it to cool until the stuffing solidifies a bit, or if you're impatient like me, scoop all the stuffing out with a spoon into a separate container, slice the pumpkin into wedges, and serve it all up right away.
This was so, so, sooo good. Bacon, cheese, cream, pumpkin, Autumn. Yummy, yum yum.
We got 5 servings with stuffing, plus (because I didn't have/make enough stuffing to completely fill the pumpkin) leftovers of 2 slices of pumpkin and the pumpkin meat on the cap, from which I will make soup in the next few days.
2. Cut a cap out of the top of the pumpkin (think Halloween jack-o'-lantern). Clean out the seeds and strings, season the inside of the pumpkin generously with salt and pepper, and put it on the baking sheet.
3. Toss the rice cakes, cheese, garlic, bacon, and herbs together in a bowl. Season with pepper, and pack the mix into the pumpkin.
 |
| Obligatory bacon close-up because, well, it's bacon. |
The pumpkin should be well filled. You might have a little too much filling, or you might need to add to it. I definitely could have used more filling, but since I had already depleted all of several of the ingredients I had on hand, I just left it as is.
4. Stir the cream with the nutmeg and some salt and pepper and pour it 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 them nicely moistened. (Don't worry, it's hard to go wrong here.)
5. Put the cap in place and bake the pumpkin for about 2 hours, or until everything inside the pumpkin is bubbling and the flesh of the pumpkin is tender enough to be pierced easily with the tip of a knife. As the original recipe writers suggested, I removed the cap during the last 20 minutes or so, so that any excess moisture could bake away and the top of the stuffing could brown a little.
6. When the pumpkin is ready, very carefully (it's heavy, hot, and wobbly) bring it to the table or transfer it to a platter that you'll bring to the table.
7. Allow it to cool until the stuffing solidifies a bit, or if you're impatient like me, scoop all the stuffing out with a spoon into a separate container, slice the pumpkin into wedges, and serve it all up right away.
This was so, so, sooo good. Bacon, cheese, cream, pumpkin, Autumn. Yummy, yum yum.
We got 5 servings with stuffing, plus (because I didn't have/make enough stuffing to completely fill the pumpkin) leftovers of 2 slices of pumpkin and the pumpkin meat on the cap, from which I will make soup in the next few days.
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