Out of its shell

This may sound un-American to say with the holidays coming, but I’m convinced that pumpkin is wasted in pie. Take away the sugar, take away the spice, take it out of a fresh shell rather than a shelf-stable can, and you’re looking at one of the most savory inspirations in the farmers market.

Old Europe certainly sees it that way. In France, Austria and especially Italy, pumpkin is rarely saved for dessert. Cooks in those countries, and probably many others that I have yet to discover, turn great pumpkin into ham-filled crepes and creamy soups and especially pastas, with lots of cheese, herbs and garlic -- all those accouterments that would put a stake through the Libby’s can.

Other parts of the world agree. You can’t order an arugula and goat cheese salad in Australia without finding chunks of spicy roasted pumpkin tucked among the leaves where the tomato should be. And in London, every restaurant currying vegetarian favor seems to be reaching for pumpkin in main courses like the savory tarte Tatin that has apparently displaced quiche as the steak alternative.

Like those foreign cooks, I think of pumpkin first and foremost as a hard squash, one of the most versatile ingredients of the season. Roast it, stuff it, braise it or saute it, and you always wind up with strong flavor and appealing texture.

But while other winter squashes, such as acorn and butternut, are hardy enough (and in enough demand) to hang around like walnuts all year, fresh pumpkins are a fairly ephemeral indulgence. The best of them, the little round ones called sugar pumpkins, are surprisingly perishable. They vanish from markets right around the time the nonedible jack-o’-lantern kind do. If you want to experience the difference, the time is now.

Pie lovers are probably objecting that pumpkin is a fruit. But so is the tomato. And while both fruits can be sugared, both are better spiced like vegetables.

My attitude changed about 10 years ago when I made my way to the “pumpkin capital of the world” to see the nation’s biggest harvest of the canned kind. The huge specimens in the fields around Morton, Ill., had an elongated shape and anemic color. They turned out to be a variety called Dickinson that dominates the industrial market because it has a low-moisture, deep-colored flesh suitable for canning.

The real revelation of the trip, though, was pumpkin chili. Someone had dreamed it up for the harvest festival in Morton, and it was my first realization that pumpkin could substitute for tomatoes and take on heavy heat as well. I returned home and made pumpkin risotto, and pumpkin gratin with Swiss chard. And I haven’t turned pumpkin into a pie very often ever since.

Like any squash in any season, pumpkin naturally goes with the kind of all-American ingredients Squanto could have taken to the first Thanksgiving table, particularly corn, beans, turkey, nuts and wild rice. It teams up harmoniously with other New World discoveries, like hot chiles and sweet peppers. And it really takes to vegetables that caramelize naturally as they cook slowly in butter and oil: onions, leeks and shallots. But pumpkin can also take a salty accent against its own sweetness, which is why goat and blue cheeses and tangy creme fraiche make far better garnishes than whipped cream.

I also like pumpkin with mushrooms, either real wild ones like morels or chanterelles, or cultivated “wild” ones like shiitakes, portobellos or creminis. Spicy sausage is also a natural partner, whether Spanish chorizo or Cajun andouille.

French flair

The French, who call pumpkin potiron, have perfected their own interpretations. I’ve seen it served with veal shanks and with scallops. In the Savoie region, it’s made into batter for crepes to fill with ham and Gruyere, and stuffed into cabbage leaves. When the French make a pie, they add onions instead of sugar.

Italians also go pumpkin crazy with what they call zucca, particularly around Parma. They season it with rosemary and sage, tuck it into ravioli and even fry it with anchovies. And they have the best understanding of how well pumpkin works with bechamel and lots of cheese, in either a gratin or lasagna.

Plain pumpkin, freshly baked and mashed, is actually pretty stunning all on its own. No one thinks to serve it that way, but it tastes like the flavor of fall, especially with fresh thyme.

Pumpkin also happens to be among the most trouble-free pieces of produce you can buy. The easiest way to wrangle it is to cut it in half, scrape out the seeds, lay it cut-side down on a baking sheet and forget it in the oven for about an hour. The flesh will caramelize as it softens, so that the flavor intensifies. All those recipes that advise adding water to the pan are steering you straight to the slow route to steaming, with only watery flesh in your future. (As I learned in the pumpkin capital, a ton of fresh pumpkin cooks down to 600 pounds.)

What you get from simple baking is very soft pumpkin that all but purees itself. The texture is more fibrous than the canned kind, but the flavor is much more vibrant. Cut a peeled pumpkin into cubes or slices, though, and it cooks faster and tastes more like a vegetable. Big chunks are an orange alternative to potatoes in stews.

If you want to double the pumpkin flavor, toss pumpkin cubes with a little pumpkin seed oil before you roast or saute them, or add pumpkin oil to a vinaigrette for an arugula salad.

Farmers markets these days deal in pumpkins in a cornucopia of sizes, shapes and colors. The main variety is the sugar pumpkin, also known as a pie pumpkin, which looks like a miniature jack-o’-lantern, with a bright orange shell and deep orange flesh. Cheese pumpkins are also widely available. They’re smaller variations on can-able Dickinsons, with a taupe skin and deep orange, relatively dry flesh. Sugar pumpkins have smoother shells and are easier to peel.

Even more prevalent are Jack-Be-Littles, pumpkins about fist size that clog supermarket produce aisles, but I prefer the grown-up kind with big flavor, serious yield and mature flavor.

Once pumpkin season ends, you can substitute other hard squash in recipes that call for it. Buttercups are my favorite, with their deep orange, deeply flavored flesh. When they go out of season, there are kabochas and hokkaidos, two Japanese varieties that are equally alluring, and the West Indian kind called calabaza. But even ordinary butternuts can work wonders in almost any pumpkin recipe. Even a pie.

As much as I’m convinced that pumpkins belong on the savory side of the menu, I really have nothing against the pie. I just think sweet potatoes do it so much better.

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Pumpkin tarte Tatin

Total time: 1 hour, 15 minutes

Servings: 6 first courses

Note: Use sugar (pie) pumpkin or cheese pumpkin. The goat cheese can be omitted and the warm tarte served instead with creme fraiche. Puff pastry can substituted for the pie crust.

1 1/4cups flour

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled

About 1/4 small (3 to 3 1/2 pounds) pumpkin

1 tablespoon olive oil

4 tablespoons butter, divided

1 1/2 cups thinly sliced onions

Coarse sea salt

2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme, divided

1 tablespoon pumpkin seed oil (or olive oil)

Pepper

1/2cup heavy cream

1 ounce soft goat cheese

For the crust, combine the flour, salt and pepper in a mixing bowl and toss with a fork to mix well. Cut the chilled unsalted butter into one-quarter-inch pieces and rub into the dry ingredients with fingertips until the mixture resembles very coarse meal. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons ice water and toss until the ingredients cling together, adding 1 tablespoon more water if necessary. Pull together into a ball and knead very lightly, then pat out into a thick round on wax paper. Wrap the dough in the wax paper and chill it while cooking the pumpkin.

2. Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Peel and seed the pumpkin and cut it into one-quarter-inch-thick slices.

3. Combine the olive oil and 2 tablespoons of the butter in a 10-inch (measured across the top) nonstick, ovenproof skillet over medium-low heat. Add the onion, salt to taste and half the thyme and saute, stirring often, until very soft and caramelized, about 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer to a bowl.

4. Wipe the skillet clean and add the remaining butter and the pumpkin seed oil; melt over medium heat. Arrange the pumpkin slices in the skillet in slightly overlapping layers, but with most of the pumpkin flat on the skillet so the surfaces will caramelize. The pumpkin should cover the bottom completely. Sprinkle with the remaining thyme and season with salt and pepper. Cook over medium-high heat until the bottom slices start to caramelize, about 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to the lowest setting, cover the skillet and cook until the pumpkin is soft but not falling apart, about 10 minutes. Drizzle with the cream and remove from the heat. Crumble the goat cheese and scatter the onions evenly over the pumpkin.

5. Cut a sheet of wax paper into a 10-inch round. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough under the sheet to make a crust, using the sheet as a guide. Remove the wax paper and carefully fit the crust over the pumpkin, tucking and crimping the perimeter to seal it completely.

6. Bake in the top third of the oven for 30 to 35 minutes, until the crust is browned. Using a small spatula around the edges of the skillet to release the crust, immediately unmold the tarte onto a serving platter (place a platter over the skillet and invert it). Cut it into wedges and serve warm or hot.

Each serving: 443 calories; 5 grams protein; 26 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams fiber; 36 grams fat; 20 grams saturated fat; 91 mg. cholesterol; 108 mg. sodium.

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Pumpkin ragout with chorizo and shiitake mushrooms

Total time: About 1 1/2 hours

Servings: 4

Note: Use Spanish chorizo.

1 poblano chile

1 small pumpkin (3 to 3 1/2 pounds)

5 tablespoons olive oil, divided

1 teaspoon coarse sea salt

1 pound shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and wiped clean

1 tablespoon tamari or soy sauce

2 cups beef or vegetable stock

4 ounces chorizo, cut into thin, half-moon slices

2 leeks, white part only, washed well and thinly sliced

2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage

1. Char the poblano over a gas flame or under the broiler until black and blistered on all sides. Cool, then slip off the skin and remove the seeds. Cut the flesh into medium dice and set aside.

2. Heat the oven to 350 degrees.

3. Peel and seed the pumpkin. Cut half the flesh into 1-inch cubes and half into one-half-inch cubes (the smaller cubes will soften to thicken the sauce). Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large skillet over high heat. Add pumpkin cubes and add the salt. Cook, shaking pan or flipping pumpkin with a spatula, until edges start to caramelize, about 10 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon to a Dutch oven or a deep casserole.

4. Quarter the shiitakes. Add 2 tablespoons of the oil to the skillet and heat briefly, then add the shiitakes. Reduce the heat to medium and cook, shaking the pan or stirring, until the shiitakes are starting to soften, about 5 minutes. Stir in the tamari and cook 5 minutes longer, until the shiitakes are tender. Add to the pumpkin.

5. Deglaze the skillet with one-half cup of the stock, scraping the bottom, then pour it into the Dutch oven. Pour the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil into the skillet and add the chorizo. Saute briefly, then add the leeks and garlic and cook, stirring constantly, until soft, 5 to 7 minutes. Add to pumpkin and shiitakes. Deglaze pan again with another one-half cup of stock and scrape into the Dutch oven. Add the diced poblano, sage and remaining 1 cup of stock and mix well. Taste and adjust seasoning.

6. Cover the pan and bake, stirring occasionally, until the largest cubes of pumpkin are tender but not falling apart, 35 to 45 minutes. Serve immediately, in shallow bowls.

Each serving: 461 calories; 16 grams protein; 36 grams carbohydrates; 5 grams fiber; 29 grams fat; 7 grams saturated fat; 25 mg. cholesterol; 1,265 mg. sodium.

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Arugula and roasted pumpkin salad with blue cheese and pecans

Total time: 50 minutes

Yield: 4 servings

Note: Dark green pumpkin seed oil and aleppo pepper, a sweet-hot chile powder, are available at restaurant supply stores, specialty cooking stores and well-stocked markets. You may substitute walnut oil or peanut oil, and any other chile powder.

1/4cup pecan halves

3 cups peeled and seeded pumpkin, cut into 1-inch cubes

5 tablespoons pumpkin seed oil, divided

1/4teaspoon aleppo pepper

1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt, or to taste

1 tablespoon Sherry vinegar

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 small shallot, peeled and minced

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

2 small bunches arugula, trimmed, washed and dried well

1/4 pound (1 cup crumbled) good blue cheese

1. Heat the oven to 300 degrees. Spread the pecans in a shallow baking dish and bake until crisp, about 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool, then chop coarsely. Raise the heat to 375 degrees.

2. Roll the pumpkin cubes in 1 tablespoon of the pumpkin seed oil in a large bowl and season with the aleppo pepper and salt. Spread on a large baking sheet and roast until they are soft and caramelized but still hold their shape, about 20 to 25 minutes, turning with a spatula every 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool to room temperature.

3. Whisk together the Sherry vinegar, mustard and minced shallot in a small bowl with salt and black pepper to taste. Whisk in the remaining oil until emulsified. Place the arugula in a salad bowl and drizzle the dressing over it to taste; you may not need it all. Toss until the greens are lightly coated.

4. Divide the greens among the serving plates and arrange the pumpkin cubes on top of each. Sprinkle with the blue cheese and toasted pecans and serve at once.

Each serving: 334 calories; 9 grams protein; 10 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams fiber; 31 grams fat; 8 grams saturated fat; 21 mg. cholesterol; 729 mg. sodium.

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Pumpkin lasagna

Total time: About 2 1/2 hours

Servings: 8 to 10

Note: Another Brie-like cheese may be substituted for Taleggio.

1 small pumpkin, about 3 pounds

1 head garlic, outer husk removed, cloves separated

2 tablespoons olive oil

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Pinch cayenne

3 cups milk

1 bay leaf

3 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons flour

Freshly grated nutmeg to taste

1 cup freshly grated pecorino Romano

1/2 pound fresh lasagna sheets

1/4 pound thinly sliced prosciutto, diced

1/2 pound firm Taleggio, cut or broken into small dice

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Cut the pumpkin in half and scrape out the seeds. Place the pumpkin cut-side down on a baking sheet and bake until soft, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Arrange the garlic cloves in a very small baking dish, add the olive oil and cover with foil. Bake until very soft, about 30 to 35 minutes.

2. When the pumpkin is cooked, drain it cut-side down in a colander, spoon out the meat, then mash it lightly. (It does not have to be smooth, but if it is too stringy, pulse it a few times in a food processor.) Season generously with salt and pepper to taste and a little cayenne. Set aside.

3. When the garlic is cooked, squeeze the pulp out of the skins and set it aside (reserve the oil for another use).

4. Bring a large pot of salted water to a rolling boil to cook the lasagna sheets.

5. Warm the milk in a saucepan with the bay leaf. Melt the butter in a second saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in the flour and cook, whisking, until bubbly and smooth. Discard the bay leaf and whisk in the milk. Cook until thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. Add the garlic, mashing with a spoon to smooth into the sauce. Season with nutmeg, salt and pepper and stir in half the grated pecorino. Keep warm.

6. Cook the lasagna until just al dente, about 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. Drain well.

7. Spread one-quarter (about three-fourths cup) of the white sauce in the bottom of a 7- by 10-inch baking dish. Place a layer of lasagna sheets on top to cover, then spoon on half the pumpkin, spreading to cover completely. Top with another layer of lasagna sheets, one-quarter of the white sauce and all the prosciutto. Place a layer of lasagna sheets on top and arrange the Taleggio bits evenly over it. Top with another layer of lasagna sheets, then with the remaining pumpkin, and finally with a last layer of lasagna sheets, pressing down if necessary to fit into the pan. Spread the remaining white sauce over the top to cover completely. Sprinkle with the remaining pecorino. Place on a baking sheet to catch drips and bake until the top is browned and bubbly, 40 to 45 minutes.

Each serving: 350 calories; 19 grams protein; 25 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram fiber; 21 grams fat; 11 grams saturated fat; 81 mg. cholesterol; 573 mg. sodium.