Pumpkins Stuffed With Everything Good
Sweet roasted pumpkin provides the perfect flavor contrast to a savory mix of bread, cheese, bacon, and herbs in these pumpkins stuffed with everything good. This irresistible combination comes from a superb recipe originally published by the delightful Dorie Greenspan in Around My French Table. While I tend to employ a bit heavier hand with the heavy cream than Dorie, the most significant difference in this version is simply my choice of pumpkin variety. Rather than stuffing one large gourd, I prefer to use dainty sugar pie pumpkins here. This way each lucky diner gets to dive into a whole entire pumpkin with their very own stuffing to unveil...a veritable feast on every plate.
Servings 2 servings
Ingredients
- 2 small sugar pie pumpkins about 2 pounds each
- about ¼ pound sourdough bread (preferably slightly stale) thinly sliced and cut into ½ inch chunks
- about ¼ pound Gruyère cheese cut into small chunks
- 3 cloves garlic finely chopped
- 4 strips cooked bacon broken into bits
- about ¼ cup fresh chives chopped
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme finely chopped
- ¾ to 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- pinch nutmeg freshly grated
- kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 350℉.
- Using a sturdy knife, very carefully cut the top off each pumpkin (as if you were making little jack-ò-lanterns), reserving the lids.
- Remove all the seeds and stringy bits. Then liberally season the inside of each pumpkin with salt and pepper.
- Prepare the stuffing ingredients. Then toss the bread, cheese, garlic, bacon, and herbs together in a bowl. Taste the stuffing mixture for seasoning, adding salt and pepper as desired.
- Whisk the nutmeg into the cream, along with a bit of salt and pepper to taste.
- Spoon the stuffing into the seasoned pumpkins. Then drizzle half of the cream mixture into each pumpkin, pouring it evenly over the stuffing.
- Place the pumpkins on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper (just in case of any sticking). Put the lids back on top and bake for about 1 hour. Then remove the lids and bake for about 15 to 30 minutes more, or until the pumpkin flesh can be easily pierced with a sharp knife and the stuffing is slightly golden on top.
- After roasting, allow the pumpkins to cool for at least 10 minutes before transferring to plates and serving.