ServesÌý8-10
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Ingredients
100g/3½oz (7 tablespoons) unsalted butter
2 large onions, finely chopped
350g/12oz fresh wild mushrooms (such as porcini, ceps, chanterelles, portobelli), rinsed, drained, dried and thinly sliced (or 115g/4oz dried porcini, softened in 125ml/4floz/½ cup warm water, stock or wine, drained and thinkly sliced)
2 whole black diamond truffles from Norcia (or 2 canned black truffles or 85g/3oz black truffle paste) (optional)
sea salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
750g/1 lb 10oz (3 cups) mascarpone cheese
350g/12oz Emmenthal cheese, grated
115g/4oz fresh Parmesan cheese, grated
3 eggs, beaten
2 teaspoons grated nutmeg
8 slices firm-textured, day-old white bread, crusts removed and bread cut into 2.5cm/1in squares
1 large pumpkin or squash, about 1.8-2.25kg (4-5 lb) in weight, its stalk end cut around to form a cap, seeds and string removed from the cavity (retain stalk end for later)
Method
Preheat the oven to 190ºC/375ºF/Gas Mark 5. In a medium sauté pan, melt 40g/1/2oz (3 tablespoons) butter. Add the onions and mushrooms and sauté until both soften and the mushrooms give up their liquors (if using dried mushrooms, strain the soaking liquid and add it to the sauté pan). Add the truffles or truffle paste, if using, and mix well. Add salt and the pepper.
In a large bowl, combine all the remaining ingredients, except the bread, remaining butter and pumpkin or squash; season with liberal amounts of salt and pepper. Beat until well combined, then stir in the onions, mushrooms and truffles. Melt the remaining butter in a sauté pan and brown the bread, tossing the pieces about in the pan until they are crisp.
Place the pumpkin or squash in a large, heavy baking dish or on a baking sheet. Spoon one-third of the mushroom mixture into the pumpkin, add half the crisped bread, another third of the mushrooms, and the remaining bread, ending with the remaining mushrooms. Top off with the pumpkin cap and roast in the oven for about 1½ hours, or until the pumpkin flesh is very soft.
Carry the pumpkin immediately to the table, remove its cap and spoon out portions of its flesh with the stuffing. The dish needs only a cool, flinty, dry white wine as accompaniment.
Reproduced with the kind permission of Marlena di Blasi from her book, A Thousand Days in Venice: An Unexpected Romance, published by Virago Press |
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