So fall-like you’ll explode
Ann says
I love fall and winter. Even though i get sick all the time it means snuggling inside and not having to stress out about the fact that I’m not outside soaking in as much sunshine as possible. Really, I find that tremendously stressful. In fall, and especially winter, I can finally relax. Food relaxes too. While summer’s dishes promote fresh, crisp, and barely cooked fare to highlight the fruits and veggies at their peak. But in winter everything is cooked a lot. Slowly, until it falls apart. I wanted to have that kind of meal tonight. I had tiny baby pumpkins from the West Seattle farmer’s market on my hands. I had no choice.
I had gotten a pork tenderloin. Rosemary grows like a weed on my block. I smothered the thing in olive oil and rosemary and thyme and seared it and cooked it at 400 F for 17 minutes. I sauteed some frozen green beans. But before all that, I made twice baked baby pumpkins…with parmesan and butter. It was collapsified, savory, sweet, and so so fall-like.
Twice baked baby pumpkins
Makes as many as you like, takes about 40 minutes
Ingredients:
- baby pumpkins (as many as you like, but for the purposes of this recipe, the ingredients correspond to just one 3-4 inch in diameter pumpkin)
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 3 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F
Cut the tops off of your pumpkins like you were going to carve them for jack-o-lanterns. Be careful to scoop out ONLY the seeds and leave all the flesh. Cut as much of the flesh off the tops as possible and put them inside the pumpkins. Place them on a pan and pop them in the oven for about 20 minutes.
Take the pumpkins out. Their flesh will be a little firm still, but you should be able to scoop it out with a spoon pretty easily. Do so and put the flesh into a large bowl. Per pumpkin, add the butter and cheese and mash like mashed potatoes. if you have an immersion blender or food processor this will make the pumpkin much smoother. Spoon the mixture back into the pumpkin shells and put back into the oven for another 15 to 20 minutes. Remove and enjoy!
Leave a Reply