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November 13, 2011
Pumpkin Polenta
Braised lamb shank ladeled over some pumkin polenta.
One thing I love about fall (OK, one of the hundreds of things I love about fall) is the brief season of sugar pumpkins. I love fresh, farm to fork sugar pumpkins from my CSA or local farmer's markets. I really don't care for canned pumpkin, which in any case is often actually blue hubbard squash, and not real pumpkin.
So at this time of year I get to do a lot of neat things with some wonderful tasting pumpkin.* One of my favorites is a simple pumpkin polenta.
Here is how it works:
Take a sugar pumpkin, remove the stem and bore a hole from the stem area to the core, then puncture the upper half of the pumpkin with a pairing knife in 6-7 places, making sure the puncture reaches the core. It is extremely important that you bore this hole and make the cuts, and do so correctly: if you do not the pumpkin could explode on you!
Make a little aluminum foil base for the pumpkin and place in a 375° F (190.6° C) oven. Roast for about 1.5 hours, until an instant read thermometer inserted well into the flesh near the base of the pumpkin reads 180° F (82.2° C)
Remove the pumpkin and let cool to the point where you can handle it. Then slice the pumpkin in half and remove the seeds and pulp at the center.
Scoop out the flesh and run through a food mill. Add a dash of cinnamon and let fully cool and then mix in ricotta (about 1/4-1/3. depending on taste, of your volume of pumpkin).
Then, basically, make polenta for around 5-6 people and, when you are done with the polenta, mix in a dab of butter and then the pumpkin-ricotta mix. Mix through thoroughly. It makes a great base for things like rich fall braises.
On the left is a Long Island Cheese Pumpkin, on the right is a basic sugar/pie pumpkin.
* I have been told that the Long Island Cheese Pumpkin is a very good substitute for the basic sugar/pie pumpkin. I will be experimenting with them as the winter roles on because a major advantage of the Long Island Cheese is that it is available here in the Southern Part of Heaven much deeper into the cold months than the pie pumpkin.
Posted by dag at November 13, 2011 8:43 PM