Pumpkin can be so much more than pie

By Elisa Ludwig

For The Inquirer

Every year the pumpkin parade arrives earlier - before Labor Day, even, the fluffy pumpkin lattes and baseball mitt-size pumpkin muffins emerge on cue from behind coffee bar counters. Limited-edition pumpkin ales follow, along with sweet-smelling doughnuts and seasonally confusing ice creams. And before long, chunky cans of purees are lining supermarket aisle-end displays, seductively promising smooth-as-silk pies.

Yet for all of our pumpkin fetishizing, we tend to take this humble cucurbit for granted, forgetting that it is also real food. With its versatility, subtle varietal differences and mutable texture, pumpkin can be so much more than a flavor of the month or doorstep decoration.

While the pumpkin takes its last victory lap of the year, this holiday season is a good time to explore some of the pumpkin's other applications.

"We're so used to thinking of the pumpkin as something for pie, but for many people - in the Caribbean, in Italy, in France - it's used for savory everyday foods," says Margo Durham, manager of Maple Acres Farms in Plymouth Meeting.

Indeed, elsewhere in the world, one of our greatest indigenous foodstuffs is an important dietary staple. In Italy, it shows up as filling for tortellini with crushed amaretto cookies or as creamy orange-hued risotto. Austria's fragrant pumpkin seed oil is drizzled over cheese and salads. In Turkey and the Middle East, chunks of pumpkin are served with syrup as a simple dessert, or the whole gourd is stuffed with meat, rice, and spices.

In Thailand, smaller pumpkins are filled with a sweet coconut custard and roasted, then sliced for a dramatic creamsicle-colored presentation. Pumpkin is often the basis for tagines or stews in North Africa, while sugary pumpkin fritters are a luxuriant sweet in South Africa; in Kenya, pumpkin is cooked into a spicy pudding with coconut milk.

If the goal is to bring pumpkin back to the Thanksgiving table, a natural place to start is with the people, who, like the pumpkin, are native to the Americas. The Mayan dish Sikil Pak alchemically transforms toasted and ground pumpkin seeds sparked with hot chile pepper, garlic and charred tomato into a creamy, rich dip.

American Indians used pumpkins not just as food but also as vessels for cooking and eating. In her new holiday book Nigella Christmas, food celebrity Nigella Lawson gives the stately gourd center stage as a meatless main dish. Stuffed with basmati rice jeweled with dried cranberries and drizzled with a gingered tomato sauce, it's a sweet and wholesome alternative for vegan eaters, and much more attractive to behold than a soy-based faux turkey could ever be.

The pumpkin-as-vessel approach can also be used for dessert as a refreshing change of pace from that slick-surfaced pie. Individual mini Jack-Be-Little pumpkins filled with pudding are cute and visually appealing; coconut milk and cardamom give them a twist reminiscent of desserts found throughout Asia and Africa.

A holiday tradition in Estonia, pickled pumpkin makes an unusual addition to the Thanksgiving feast. The pumpkin is cut into cubes that turn crisp and shimmery when boiled in a tangy brine spiced with cinnamon, allspice, black pepper, and ginger, yet the pickles still retain a bit of the pumpkin's velvety texture. Pickled pumpkin can complement turkey as a relish, or it can be served as an exotic sweet.

A note on usage: Though any pumpkin can be used for eating, the general rule of thumb is to choose smaller pumpkins for sweeter, less-stringy flesh. Cheese and sugar pumpkins and kabocha squash can be used interchangeably, and some cooks even use butternut squash as a substitute.

This time of year, Maple Acres sells cinderella, peanut and neck pumpkins (reputedly prized by the Amish for pie-making). Durham says her customers usually come in knowing what pumpkin they're looking for.

"People who cook with pumpkins tend to be special fans of certain kinds."