Kay Baumhefner of the Come Home to Cooking School in Petaluma shared this recipe for a tasty harvest dish: A pumpkin stuffed with bread, wild mushrooms, cheese and truffle oil. It would be a perfect side dish to bring to a potluck Thanksgiving dinner.
I’ve also included Baumhefner’s recipe for a yummy Autumn Harvest Stuffing made with farro, a whole grain from Italy.
“Rich with contrasting flavors, textures and colors, this hearty and nourishing dish is also packed full of plant proteins, vitamins and natural energy,” Kay Baumhefner writes of her farro stuffing recipe. “It’s an open-minded concept that easily adapts to your personal preferences or available ingredients.”
Stuffed Pumpkin
Makes 8 to 12 servings
6 to 7 pound pumpkin or winter squash
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
Grey salt and black pepper
6 cups ciabatta or campagne bread, cut into ¾-inch cubes (hard crusts removed)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Fine grey salt and black pepper
FOR MUSHROOMS:
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 pound wild mushrooms, thinly sliced
2 large yellow onions, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon rubbed, dried sage
EGG MIXTURE:
2-3 large eggs
Grey salt and black pepper
2 teaspoons freshly grated nutmeg
2-3 cups mascarpone or crème fraiche
2 tablespoons each black truffle oil and roasted pumpkin seed oil
¾ pound cave-aged Gruyere, grated
¼ pound Parmigiano-Reggiano, finely grated
2 tablespoons chopped Italian flat-leaf parsley, for garnish
Cut pumpkin in half horizontally, scrape out the seeds and put cut side down on parchment-lined sheet pans. Cut a small slit with a paring knife through the skin in between each natural scallop shape. Bake at 350 degrees until barely tender but still holding a firm shape (30 to 60 minutes). Pour off and reserve any extra juices. Invert into buttered shallow casseroles just big enough to fit skin side down. Cut small slits halfway through the inside flesh. Brush interior and rims with melted butter; sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Meanwhile, evenly toss bread cubes with melted butter and sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper. Bake at 350 degrees on parchment-lined sheet pan, stirring periodically until evenly golden brown and crispy, but not rock hard (20 to 30 minutes).
In a large sauté pan over high heat, brown the mushrooms with some of the butter in successive small batches until deeply colored and all their juices evaporated. Season with salt and pepper and remove.
In the same pan, sauté, the onions in the rest of the butter with the sage until very tender and golden. Season with salt and pepper and add back in the mushrooms and any reserved pumpkin juices, quickly reducing the juices until syrupy.
In a large bowl, beat the eggs and then whisk in the rest of the egg mixture ingredients. Stir in the cheeses, mushrooms-onions and croutons; taste carefully for salt/pepper.
Divide stuffing between two pumpkin halves, mounding it in the center. Cover tightly with parchment and then foil (or a lid), leaving an air pocket at the top so the stuffing is not smashed. Bake at 350-375 degrees until the pumpkin is completely tender (but not turned to mush) and the stuffing is golden brown, set and puffed up in the center (about an hour, depending on how hot all the ingredients were.)
Sprinkle with parsley around perimeter of stuffing and cut in wedges to serve, spooning juices over the top.
Autumn Harvest Stuffing
Makes 8 to 12 servings
FOR SQUASH:
2 pounds butternut squash, peeled and seeded and cut into ½-inch dice
Olive oil, grey salt and black pepper, to taste
FOR CRANBERRIES:
¼ cup dried cranberries and ¼ cup golden raisins, macerated in 2 tablespoon Grand Marnier
FOR GREENS:
¼-½ pound baby spinach leaves (or ¼ pound arugula)
FOR FARRO:
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups Italian farro (semi-pearled)
2 teaspoons salt
8 grinds black pepper
1 bay leaf
4 cups hot chicken stock (or water)
FOR MUSHROOMS:
4 ounces applewood smoked bacon, cut into ¼-inch lardons
2 tablespoons bacon fat or olive oil
1 pound crimini mushrooms, thinly sliced
2 cups sliced red onion
2-3 full sprigs fresh thyme
3 cloves garlic, pounded with 2 juniper berries and a pinch allspice
6-8 grinds black pepper
Grey salt to taste
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
FOR FENNEL:
1 bulb fennel, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon strained fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
FOR NUTS:
½ cup roasted pistachio meats
¼ cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
Drizzle of roasted pistachio oil (optional)
Salt and pepper, to taste
FOR GARNISH:
Figs and Seckle pears and pomegranates
For squash: Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Evenly and generously coat diced squash with several tablespoons oil, a sprinkling of salt and pepper and distribute it into a single layer on a parchment-lined sheet pan. Bake in the middle of a 375 oven for 45 to 60 minutes.
For cranberries: Stir the Grand Marnier into the combined cranberries and raisins; set aside to infuse and plump, stirring several times.
For greens: Rinse and spin the spinach or arugula; store in fridge temporarily.
For farro: Rinse and drain the farro, picking out any impurities. In a large heavy saucepan over medium heat, stir the farro into the oil to coat and toast for several minutes; add the seasonings and then the hot stock (or water). Bring to a boil, stir once, then cover and simmer about 20 to 30 minutes until all the liquid is absorbed and it’s tender but toothsome, adding more hot stock if needed. Discard the bay leaf and set off the heat, lid askew.
Cook the bacon in a deep, heavy skillet over medium heat until barely crisp; remove and reserve.
Pour all but 2 tablespoons of the fat out of the skillet (and reserve), raise the heat to medium-high and add the mushrooms and thyme. Cook, stirring, until a deep golden brown, adding more bacon fat (or olive oil) as needed to keep from sticking. Reduce the heat to medium and add the red onion to briefly saute with a sprinkling of salt until just starting to go limp, once again adding a little oil as needed to keep from sticking.
Add the pepper and garlic-juniper berry-allspice paste; cook for several minutes, still stirring to infuse with flavor but without scorching the garlic. Discard the thyme; taste for salt and add the balsamic vinegar and reserved bacon, stirring to coat the mushrooms and reduce any liquids. Reserve off heat.
When all the component parts are ready, fold the farro into the mushrooms, add a sprinkling of water or stock and cover just to gently reheat together. Then transfer the mixture to a large bowl or casserole and fold in the macerated dried fruits. (Can be made ahead to this point, cooled and kept covered in the fridge for several days; then either use to stuff the turkey or gently reheat, covered, with a sprinkling of water or stock to remoisten.)
Toss the fennel with the lemon juice and olive oil to coat and fold into the hot stuffing. Then fold in the roasted squash, pistachios, parsley and optional pistachio oil.
Taste carefully for salt and pepper and serve on top of a bed of fresh spinach or arugula, in a wide bowl or rimmed platter, garnished with halved figs or pears or sections of pomegranate.
