Pumpkins add a riot of colour to the autumn table. Hugo Arnold on the Cinderella of the vegetable world
Pumpkins and squashes are hardly shy vegetables, sitting there in their glorious robes of verdant orange, red and yellow, adding colour to this fast-fading time of year. When you buy them, they can languish for days, happy, it seems, to clog up the fruit or vegetable bowl, and with no discernible deterioration.This makes them storecupboard gems. They will roast up a dream, either as a component in an autumn salad, or to accompany grilled or roasted meat and fish. Roasted and combined with other vegetables - onions in particular - they puree into one of the best seasonal soups. A well-made pumpkin risotto is delicious, and they add richness to a mid-week gratin.
Large pumpkins can be fashioned into ghoulish monsters with crooked teeth and wonky noses, but large is not always best when flavour is required. Variety is important, but so, too, is cultivation. Where a pumpkin lies can influence its final attitude. A lack of care in the early stages brings problems which will only be realised months later with the first slash of a knife.The problems afflicting gardeners also affects us shoppers. Know your pumpkin may seem daft advice, but they are far from all the same.
Pumpkin flesh delights in a good roasting. Garlic and butter are good additions. Thyme adds attitude, as do sage and rosemary. Be brave and serve half a small roasted and herbed pumpkin as a starter on its own. Slash the flesh and add butter and garlic to the cavities. Eat with a spoon so none of the moist flesh is wasted.
Larger specimens may need to be cut into wedges, but they can be cooked in the same way. A green salad and maybe some roast mushrooms, for an earthy but silky contrast, make for a weighty main course. Some braised lentils will beef it up even further.
For those with time on their hands, pumpkin gnocchi is a delight; fluffy nodules of deliciousness baked perhaps in a cream and sage-based sauce heady with nutmeg, or something buttery infused with rosemary and thickened with gorgonzola maybe. Squash can be paired with ricotta or combined with amaretti biscuits for a sweeter and crunchier version of a tortellini filling.
For reliability, my vote goes to butternut squash. Meaty and nutty, their smooth richness never disappoints. They are less vibrant in colour, and they are a pain to peel - but the effort is worth it.
Spices, too, are worth pairing with pumpkin; paprika (both sweet and hot), ginger and cumin all have an affinity with it. A pumpkin curry can lift the spirits - something Thai-inspired perhaps, with coconut milk and lemongrass - the kind of substantial eating normally reserved for carnivores.