ACCOUNTANT BY DAY

So last weekend I didn’t do my normal grocery shopping because we were out of town and I wound up having to sit there over lunch a couple of days this week and figure out what we were going to eat.  And since autumn kind of puts me in the mood to try new things anyway, I spent some time hanging out on Allrecipes looking for some different recipes that aren’t all fatty.  And one of the things I ran into was Savory Pumpkin Casserole, which I immediately identified as a recipe that would turn out to be totally great and fulfilling in every way.  I went to the store that evening and bought a tiny little pie pumpkin and it’s almost sick how excited I was about making this pumpkin casserole.

I didn’t get to make it yesterday, but I knew I’d get to try it today, so I was okay with that.  And anyway, I was planning to make this beany bake casserole tonight and I was pretty sure that would be big enough to rely on for dinner if my glorious casserole somehow failed me.  And you know how when you’re really looking forward to something, you halfway like visualize the thing?  I had this dream last night about peeling and cutting up pumpkins.  That is how much I love squash and was counting on this thing to be utterly delightful.

So I started with this actual whole pumpkin.  And I think that was like half the thrill for me.  Every single other thing I have ever made from pumpkin was made with canned pumpkin.  And I have never cut into a pumpkin before with the intention of doing something food-related with it.  Which in a way is somewhat ironic since pumpkin is undeniably food, but nevermind that.  This was somewhat uncharted territory for me, but since I dreamed about it last night I knew exactly what I was going to do.

My pumpkin weighed 2.5 pounds and it was the smallest one I could find, because pumpkins are quite dense.  I cut the stem off first.  Then it was mysteriously stuck, so I used a butter knife to pry it out.  Then I cut the whole thing in half from top to bottom.  Because I like symmetry.

The recipe calls for the pumpkin to be sliced up and then you peel the pieces, but I thought that sounded like so much work it might possibly kill me, so instead I scraped out all the pumpkin poo inside and then gripped each half and used my serrated peeler to take the rind off.  On a side note, the serrated peeler is one of those gadgets that even though I only use it like once a month, I feel deeply that I could not live without it.  It’s for peeling soft things that wouldn’t hold up to the pressure of a blunt peeler, or things with a tough rind that wouldn’t be easy to take off with a regular peeler.  If you ever want to peel a tomato, a kiwi fruit, a mango, or in this case, a squash, I highly recommend this item.  Even if you only use it to make fruit pizza and guacamole like twice a year.

I was impressed by how closely a gutted little pumpkin resembles a canteloupe.

I chopped the beautiful, naked pumpkin into roughly bite-sized pieces.  The recipe called for it to be cut into quarter inch slices, but that sounded unwieldy and I wasn’t sure what exactly a slice meant.  So I quartered each half lengthwise and then cut that into smaller bits.  It worked fine.  And remember?  I knew exactly what I was doing.

After cutting up the pumpkin, you toss it in a bowl and chop up an onion, which you add to the bowl.  Then add a teaspoon of salt and a quarter teaspoon of pepper and two tablespoons of melted butter.  I used Land-O-Lakes light butter.  Stir the whole thing up and throw it in a casserole dish.  I had to change dishes because I incorrectly guessed the size it would need.  The recipe isn’t kidding when it says you have to use a big dish.

I could not wait for the pumpkin casserole to be done.  But first, I had to bake it half an hour at 375 degrees until the pumpkin tenderized a little.  After that, you stir up two eggs, three-quarters a cup of ricotta cheese, and three-quarters a cup of milk and pour it all over the top.  I thought this turned out rather good, but I’m thinking this is the thing that made my husband hate this dish in the end.

It wasn’t the prettiest thing.

And if you’re my husband, it was not the most delicious thing, either.  I’m not sure if it was loyalty to my dear, dear pumpkin or if it really was genuinely good, but I liked it.  I ate a big bowl of it and then I packed the rest up for my lunch tomorrow.  My husband, conversely, ate a couple bite and had to throw the rest away because he could not bear to eat more.  But he did OK because there was still the dinner casserole, which he finished off.

I thought the individual serving looked more delightful because you can see how tender and soft the pumpkin is.  The only thing that irritated me was that the texture of some of the onion was too tough.  You know how when you don’t peel off enough layers of an onion it has this kind of fibrous, papery texture and it’s not tender and nice the way an onion ought to be?  That’s the only problem.  Next time I’ll do better on the onion.  Assuming there gets to be a next time.  This is a lot of pumpkin and my husband really, really did not like it.

I’m thinking next time I’ll maybe try an adjustment. I think the texture bugged him - what if I skipped the egg and ricotta and milk and used some shredded parmesan and bread crumbs instead?  I might also try a sweet version of this.  I’ve never had chunky sweet pumpkin before.  I had this almost…pumpkin cobbler or pumpkin crisp type vision in my head.  Now that I have fought the mighty pumpkin and won, I know I can do this again any time I want!

Incidentally, this is the beany bake casserole we had.  I know I’m betraying my white-trash heritage by saying this, but it was breathtakingly good.