Liz Dudek has been an adventuresome, creative cook since she was a young girl, and she was the first person I knew to try this intriguing recipe from Ruth Reichl’s book Comfort Me With Apples. It’s now one of Liz’s mother Penny’s favorite fall side dishes when she’s entertaining. The recipe calls for filling a small pumpkin with bread, cheese, eggs and cream and baking it until the pumpkin flesh is tender. Penny says not to worry if you can’t find a 4 pounder, she has used a couple of 3 pound pumpkins instead. Just fill them up with a bit more bread and cheese; you really can’t go wrong here.
All of Ruth’s books are autobiographical, detailing her most interesting life as the food editor and restaurant critic at both the Los Angeles and New York Times newspapers, and later as editor of Gourmet magazine. The genesis of this recipe came with the breakup of her first marriage…..”The night Doug moved out of Channing Way I made Swiss pumpkin. As I cooked I reminded myself of a famous Brillat-Savarin aphorism: ‘The invention of a new recipe does more for mankind than the discovery of a new star.’ ”
1 pumpkin, about 4 1/4 pounds
a 14-inch baguette, cut into 1/4 inch thick slices, then toasted lightly
1/4 pound Gruyere cheese, grated
1 3/4 cups half and half
2 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Carefully cut a 1-inch slice off the top of the pumpkin. Reserving the top, scoop out and discard the seeds and strings. Make 3 layers each of the toast and cheese in the pumpkin cavity, alternating layers and ending with cheese. Whisk together the half and half, eggs, salt, pepper and nutmeg and slowly pour the mixture into the pumpkin. Replace the top of the pumpkin and bake on a shallow baking pan in the middle of the oven until the pumpkin is tender, about 2 hours. Serve by scooping out the pumpkin flesh with the bread and cheese. Serves 4.
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