Belle's 20 Bites

            Pumpkins are not merely a favorite fall canvas for carving funny faces and frightful scenes, first and foremost these blazing orange bulbs are food (!). If you can look past their use as spooky porch decorations, and (bien sûr) their excellent smashing abilities they are certainly among the tastiest of autumn squashes. 

            The recipe below calls for white pumpkin, but any shade on the white to deep orange color spectrum will produce similar deliciousness.  The ingredients are simple and minimal, but this concoction nearly brought pumpkiny tears to my eyes—the garlic flavor, so subtle and light, floats around the sweet, earthy pumpkin like a pillowy dream.  If forced to live and cook in fall forever, this would be my meal du choix.

White Pumpkin and Roasted Garlic Soup

6 Cloves garlic, left whole and in their skins

1 Medium white pumpkin (the orange variety works well too)

3 Tablespoons olive oil

2 Cups vegetable stock

Salt & pepper 

1. Preheat oven to 350˚.  Cut pumpkin in half, remove the seeds (see recipe below for a good way to use the seeds), then cut into even sized wedges and place onto a sheet pan.  Drizzle pumpkin wedges with olive oil and sprinkle with salt & pepper. Bake in oven for 50 minutes to an hour, or until the “meat” of the pumpkin easily peels away when scraped with a fork.  Halfway through cooking time, coat garlic cloves with olive oil and add to sheet pan with the pumpkin.
2. Remove pumpkin and garlic from the oven, set aside until cool enough to handle.  Remove skin from garlic and place in a large bowl.  Remove all of the pumpkin meat from skin and add to the bowl with garlic. Add warmed vegetable stock.  Using an immersion blender, food processor, or blender, blend until very smooth.  Check for seasoning and serve with crispy garlic chips (slices of garlic sautéed in olive until brown).