In the Kitchen with A Good Appetite by Melissa Clark

Author:Melissa Clark
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hachette Books

CHEESY BAKED PUMPKIN WITH GRUYèRE FONDUE

“Want to hear about the latest sick thing my sister Susan made?”

It was my friend Karen on the phone. Her sister Susan is a pastry chef known for her decadent cooking. Susan is the kind of person who slathers her toast with so much butter you can see it rise up in white waves from the side view. She’s been known to poach her eggs in bacon fat, and always has pints of ice cream, frozen homemade fudge sauce, nuts, sprinkles, and heavy cream on hand, just in case an afternoon ice cream sundae emergency should strike.

So I was prepared for something with a high butterfat content. But even so, the cheesy pumpkin took me by surprise.

Based on a Ruth Reichl recipe for pumpkin soup, cheesy pumpkin consists of filling the hollowed-out vegetable with layers of grated cheese and slices of French bread, and pouring in enough heavy cream to cover it all. It is then baked until the cheese melts into the cream, creating a glossy fondue that coats the softened pumpkin like cheese sauce, but richer.

Naturally, I had to make it. But as I found myself confronted with the necessary ingredients—the pound of cheese, loaf of bread, and quart of heavy cream—I got cold feet. After all, even if I did share it with my friends and neighbors, I knew I’d still eat the majority of it. And seeing the amount of cream and cheese laid out in front of me was, as Karen said, a little sick.

I wanted to cut the cream by adding another liquid, so I considered my options. Milk would make it lighter, but wouldn’t add anything to the taste, so it seemed like a wasted opportunity. Chicken broth would add a meaty complexity, and I was about to defrost some when another thought hit me. White wine would not only lighten the cheese sauce, it would add brightness and make the filling even more fondue-like.

I also threw some sage into the filling because I like how the piney-ness of sage offsets the sweet denseness of winter squashes and cream.

As a final touch, I oiled the skin of the pumpkin and sprinkled it with salt in the hope that it would crisp up in the oven, and the salty, crunchy pumpkin skin would make a textured, savory contrast to all the richness contained in its belly.

While it baked, I pondered what to do with the massive amounts of leftovers I was sure I’d have, considering I’d invited only one friend over for dinner and my husband doesn’t eat cream or cheese. Would the baby eat it? Would it freeze well? Just how much could I foist onto my health-conscious neighbors?

But once it emerged from the oven, steaming and runny and aromatic, I knew I didn’t have to worry. My friend and I polished off half of it for dinner right then and there, and the rest I nibbled my way through in the course of a few days. It might have been sick, but in the best possible way.

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