Shortly after I was given this recipe, I started keeping a list of whom I'd made it for—because I loved it so much, I was sure that if I didn't keep track, I'd end up serving the dish to the same people over and over. The idea for it came from my friend Hélène Samuel's sister, Catherine, whose husband grows pumpkins on his farm just outside Lyon. Catherine sent me a charming outline of the recipe, and as soon as I'd baked my first pumpkin, I realized that an outline is about the best you can do with this dish. It's a hollowed-out pumpkin stuffed with bread, cheese, garlic, and cream, and since pumpkins come in unpredictable sizes, cheeses and breads differ, and baking times depend on how long it takes for the pumpkin to get soft enough to pierce with a knife, being precise is impossible.
As Catherine said when she turned this family favorite over to me, "I hope you will put the recipe to good use, knowing that it's destined to evolve . . . and maybe even be improved."
Well, I've certainly been putting it to good use, and it has evolved, although I'm not sure that it's been improved, since every time I make it, it's different, but still wonderful. My guess is that you'll have the same feeling once you start playing around with this "outline." See Bonne Idée for some hints on variations.
And speaking of playing around, you might consider serving this alongside the Thanksgiving turkey or even instead of it—omit the bacon and you've got a great vegetarian main course.
Ingredients
Makes 2 very generous servings or 4 more genteel servings
Step 1
Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment, or find a Dutch oven with a diameter that's just a tiny bit larger than your pumpkin. If you bake the pumpkin in a casserole, it will keep its shape, but it might stick to the casserole, so you'll have to serve it from the pot—which is an appealingly homey way to serve it. If you bake it on a baking sheet, you can present it freestanding, but maneuvering a heavy stuffed pumpkin with a softened shell isn't so easy. However, since I love the way the unencumbered pumpkin looks in the center of the table, I've always taken my chances with the baked-on-a-sheet method, and so far, I've been lucky.
Step 2
Using a very sturdy knife—and caution—cut a cap out of the top of the pumpkin (think Halloween Jack-o-Lantern). It's easiest to work your knife around the top of the pumpkin at a 45-degree angle. You want to cut off enough of the top to make it easy for you to work inside the pumpkin. Clear away the seeds and strings from the cap and from inside the pumpkin. Season the inside of the pumpkin generously with salt and pepper, and put it on the baking sheet or in the pot.
Step 3
Toss the bread, cheese, garlic, bacon, and herbs together in a bowl. Season with pepper—you probably have enough salt from the bacon and cheese, but taste to be sure—and pack the mix into the pumpkin. The pumpkin should be well filled—you might have a little too much filling, or you might need to add to it. Stir the cream with the nutmeg and some salt and pepper and pour it into the pumpkin. Again, you might have too much or too little—you don't want the ingredients to swim in cream, but you do want them nicely moistened. (It's hard to go wrong here.)
Step 4
Put the cap in place and bake the pumpkin for about 2 hours—check after 90 minutes—or until everything inside the pumpkin is bubbling and the flesh of the pumpkin is tender enough to be pierced easily with the tip of a knife. Because the pumpkin will have exuded liquid, I like to remove the cap during the last 20 minutes or so, so that the liquid can bake away and the top of the stuffing can brown a little.
Step 5
When the pumpkin is ready, carefully, very carefully—it's heavy, hot, and wobbly—bring it to the table or transfer it to a platter that you'll bring to the table.
Serving
Step 6
You have a choice—you can either spoon out portions of the filling, making sure to get a generous amount of pumpkin into the spoonful, or you can dig into the pumpkin with a big spoon, pull the pumpkin meat into the filling, and then mix everything up. I'm a fan of the pull-and-mix option. Served in hearty portions followed by a salad, the pumpkin is a perfect cold-weather main course; served in generous spoonfuls, it's just right alongside the Thanksgiving turkey.
Storing
Step 7
It's really best to eat this as soon as it's ready. However, if you've got leftovers, you can scoop them out of the pumpkin, mix them up, cover, and chill them; reheat them the next day.
Bonne Idée
Step 8
There are many ways to vary this arts-and-crafts project. Instead of bread, I've filled the pumpkin with cooked rice—when it's baked, it's almost risotto-like. And, with either bread or rice, on different occasions I've added cooked spinach, kale, chard, or peas (the peas came straight from the freezer). I've made it without bacon (a wonderful vegetarian dish), and I've also made it and loved, loved, loved it with cooked sausage meat; cubes of ham are also a good idea. Nuts are a great addition, as are chunks of apple or pear or pieces of chestnut.
How would you rate Pumpkin Stuffed with Everything Good?
Leave a Review
Reviews (176)
Back to TopI am not seeing anyone suggest or try potatoes in here. It seems like a nice substitute for bread, if you are not going for a "dressing"...?
Maraya
Boulder, CO
11/9/2022
This recipe turned out great! I shredded the cheese and used smoked cheddar and smoked Gouda. I used the grease from the cooked bacon to brush down the inside of the pumpkin before salting, stuffing, and cooking. I did as others said and took the top off on the last 30 minutes or so and it definitely added some nice color. I really didn't deviate on much other than boosting the amount of thyme. I would also recommend mixing the filling before putting it into the pumpkin, as another comment mentions. Looking forward to making this again!
Chris F
Chicago, IL
10/15/2022
I scaled this down, used a small pie pumpkin, usd Gouda, mushrooms, spinach and shredded carrot.. Little heavy cream with nutmeg and it was a winner! Great fall meal and will make again.
AMorris
Falls, Ohio
10/9/2022
After three years I keep coming back to this recipe. Here’s some tips I’ve learned to nail this dish. Use the best quality squash and cheese you can afford. The worst time I made it, I used small cooking pumpkins that were just poor quality coupled with cheddar and Gouda cubes, and the result was flavourless, heavy and bland. By varieties of squash whose skin is good/tasty enough to eat when roasted and you can’t go wrong. Rub oil on outside of pumpkins before you roast and cut the cooking time by 30 minutes (90 min total cook time). Drizzle the cream over the stuffing and mix to moisten completely BEFORE you pack the stuffing into the pumpkins, and then add about 1 TBS of cream on top once stuffing is packed in. We’re vegetarian so best bacon replacements I’ve tried are extra large green olives diced (6), or shredded halloumi cheese that you cook til crispy, stiff and golden brown (try it, it’s fab and very bacon-like! Also halloumi prepared this way holds up really well cooked in the stuffing). Cut the other cheeses smaller like 1/4 inch squares and I would say unless you absolutely love loads of melted cheese, replace 1/3 of the cheese with equal weight of diced mushrooms and shredded baby spinach. Adds a lot of flavour, moisture and interest to the stuffing. Also, as others have said, half the garlic and make sure to dice it as small as a you can. Course chopping the garlic has always yielded a very garlicky, overpowered pumpkin in all my trials. But even with attempts I may have thought were just fair, my family have always totally loved this dish and even my twins have eagerly eaten it since they were 2 for our vegetarian thanksgiving dinners. One we always look forward to! If it doesn’t turn out quite right the first time, keep making adjustments based on your taste and what you like. It’s really worth it and very repeatable once you find it.
Anonymous
UK
11/27/2020
I'm so sorry, I wanted to love this, I really did. But I found it to be awful. Tasteless, terrible texture. I followed the recipe almost exactly-- although I used vegan bacon and no fresh time, so I did the usual sub of 1/3 of the amount dried. Other than that, weighed the bread and cheese amounts, and even searched out an almost-exactly-3-pound-pumpkin. This has gotten so many positive reviews that I guess it's just me. But I would never make this again.
Amie Richan
Pennsylvania
11/27/2020
Perfect Thanksgiving dish.
aarong1000
11/12/2020
I made something similar a few years ago, but it was lighter - not so rich. I stuffed the pumpkin with Italian sausage, bread cubes, mushrooms, onions, garlic (all sauteed in advance). I did not add cream or cheese, but rather used vegetable stock for moistening. Fabulous!
Anonymous
Philadelphia, PA
11/12/2019
Gorgeous, easy to scale up and adapt. We used a very large pumpkin, a combo of cubed bread and cooked forbidden rice, roasted red peppers, quartered mushrooms, mixed shredded cheese, garlic, and herbs... it was delicious and a striking addition to our halloween feast. Will be making again for Thanksgiving!
archiey
Santa Barbara, CA
11/3/2019
I came across this recipe a few years ago. It is now a fall tradition in the house. I have to make it every fall. Sometimes with sausage instead of bacon, sometimes with sage, but it is always based on this recipe and it is amazing. My family loves it!
iggylmc
colorado
10/31/2019
Hello, When living in Western Pa. I prepared a stuffed pumpkin every Halloween for, 19 years. Ingredients depended on what was donated, 'pheasant' with wild rice, chestnuts carrots leeks and wine. Others were 'venison sausage' with, homemade saurkruat, caraway seeds apples wine with purple mash potatoes on top. we were always 4 or 5 couples plus children. The men hunted for the donated meats. For Thanksgiving I put bread stuffing in individual pumpkins. For Christmas, pumpkin cookies with cinnamon cream cheese frosting.
halfnelson47127
SoCal
10/11/2019
Saved this recipe ages ago and finally made it. Used soy chorizo, roasted poblanos, pepper jack cheese. Incredibly delicious. Loved by vegetarians! It really is a very “forgiving” recipe. I’m sure I’ll make it differently next time. Do try it, very impressive.
jnsfish
San Francisco, CA
12/2/2018
I made this for the first time a couple of months ago, and was quite pleased. I made it as written, but will be experimenting with it for Christmas. It wasn't as creamy as I would have liked, so I would add a bit more cream. Otherwise it was simply delicious, and reheated nicely for leftovers.
Anonymous
Washington, DC
12/19/2017
Over on FB Insta Pot site, you made the comment you did this in an Insta pot, would care to share that way of doing it?
Palladini
Brantford, Ontario
11/2/2017
This is something I grew up eating. My mom cooked this every fall when sugar pumpkins are available. The traditional recipe I'm used to is made with hamburg, diced onions, masehed potatoes or rice and seasoned with spices like mace or nutmeg, clove, brown sugar, salt and pepper. Cooke the same as above and served with butter and mashed all up together. It's amazing.
kdberard11940
North Smithfield, RI
9/27/2017
While I've done this recipe many times, this year I turned it into an appetizer with great results. Instead of using a pie pumpkin, I used canned pumpkin. Instead of cubing the cheese, I grated it and only added half to the mix. Then I filled small phyllo shells with the mix and topped with some of the grated cheese. Baked 10 mins at 350 degrees. Everyone loved them! I've done this twice now and the positive responses were overwhelming.
onestitch
FallFalF
11/26/2016
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