Overstuffed Pumpkin With Cornbread Apples And Turkey Sausage With Sauvignon Blanc Recipes

PUMPKIN STUFFED WITH EVERYTHING GOOD

Steps:

• As written:.
• Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment, or find a Dutch oven with a diameter that's just a tiny bit larger than your pumpkin. If you bake the pumpkin in a casserole, it will keep its shape, but it might stick to the casserole, so you'll have to serve it from the pot - which is an appealingly homey way to serve it. If you bake it on a baking sheet, you can present it freestanding, but maneuvering a heavy stuffed pumpkin with a softened shell isn't so easy. However, since I love the way the unencumbered pumpkin looks in the center of the table, I've always taken my chances with the baked-on-a-sheet method, and so far, I've been lucky.
• Using a very sturdy knife - and caution - cut a cap out of the top of the pumpkin (think Halloween jack-o'-lantern). It's easiest to work your knife around the top of the pumpkin at a 45-degree angle. You want to cut off enough of the top to make it easy for you to work inside the pumpkin. Clear away the seeds and strings from the cap and from inside the pumpkin. Season the inside of the pumpkin generously with salt and pepper, and put it on the baking sheet or in the pot. Toss the bread, cheese, garlic, bacon, and herbs together in a bowl. Season with pepper - you probably have enough salt from the bacon and cheese, but taste to be sure - 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. 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. (But it's hard to go wrong here.).
• Put the cap in place and bake the pumpkin for about 2 hours - check after 90 minutes - 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. Because the pumpkin will have exuded liquid, I like to remove the cap during the last 20 minutes or so, so that the liquid can bake away and the top of the stuffing can brown a little.
• When the pumpkin is ready, carefully, 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.
• Serving:.
• You have choices:you can cut wedges of the pumpkin and filling; you can spoon out portions of the filling, making sure to get a generous amount of pumpkin into the spoonful; or you can dig into the pumpkin with a big spoon, pull the pumpkin meat into the filling, and then mix everything up. I'm a fan of the pull-and-mix option. Served in hearty portions followed by a salad, the pumpkin is a perfect cold-weather main course; served in generous spoonfuls or wedges, it's just right alongside the Thanksgiving turkey.
• Storing:.
• It's really best to eat this as soon as it's ready. However, if you've got leftovers, you can scoop them out of the pumpkin, mix them up, cover, and chill them; reheat them the next day.
• Greenspan's Stuffing Ideas:.
• There are many ways to vary this arts-and-crafts project. Instead of bread, I've filled the pumpkin with cooked rice - when it's baked, it's almost risotto-like. And, with either bread or rice, on different occasions I've added cooked spinach, kale, chard, or peas (the peas came straight from the freezer). I've made it without bacon, and I've also made and loved, loved, loved it with cooked sausage meat; cubes of ham are another good idea. Nuts are a great addition, as are chunks of apple or pear or pieces of chestnut.

CHUNKY APPLE PUMPKIN BREAD

Steps:

• In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder and cloves. In another large bowl, whisk the pumpkin, water, eggs and oil. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in apples and walnuts. , Pour into a greased 9x5-in. loaf pan. Bake at 325° for 1-1/2 to 1-3/4 hours or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool.

OVERSTUFFED PUMPKIN WITH CORNBREAD, APPLES AND TURKEY SAUSAGE WITH SAUVIGNON BLANC

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Cut off the lid of the pumpkin and set it aside. Pull out the seeds and strings from inside the pumpkin. Brush the inside flesh with melted butter, season with salt and pepper. Place pumpkin on a roasting rack set inside a pan; bake for 15 minutes.
• In a large skillet, heat oil over moderate heat. Add onion, celery, garlic, apples, celery seed, and fennel seed. Sprinkle in orange zest and 2 tablespoons each parsley and sage. Cook, stirring often, until fragrant, about 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add the ground sausage, breaking up the meat with a wooden spoon, and brown until no longer pink, about 10 minutes. Deglaze the pan with wine, cook down 2 minutes to evaporate the alcohol. Stir in the cream, check seasoning.
• Scrape the sausage mixture into a large bowl and fold in the cornbread. Gradually blend in the eggs and chicken broth, until the stuffing is evenly moistened. Add remaining parsley and sage. Fill the pumpkin with stuffing, return to the oven, and bake 20 minutes until the eggs are cooked and the stuffing has a little lift. Serve stuffing in the pumpkin bowl topped with lid.