There are no kids in our house and my husband doesn’t like to dress in costumes, so Halloween for us usually means inviting a couple of friends over to watch some B horror movies, eat dinner, drink cocktails and hand out candy to the neighborhood trick or treaters. A very adult Halloween dinner party.
Here in Minnesota it’s usually pretty cold by Halloween, heck we’ve been known to get three feet of snow that night, so we usually cook up something hearty and warming for dinner. A favorite of ours is pie pumpkins filled with cheese, sausage and bread then and cooked until everything is gooey and oozy.
Serve everyone their own pumpkin with the top on, ‘cuz you know everyone loves individual servings. The pumpkin softens while it’s cooked, so you can scoop it out with the filling.
It’s like a cheese fondue with all the dippers cooked right in.
Pumpkin Guts
(Since every pumpkin is going to be a different size you may use a little less or a little more cheese & sausage than this recipe calls for.)
16 oz bulk Italian sausage (spicy or mild, your choice)
4 pie pumpkins (about the size of a large soup bowl)
vegetable oil
1 1/2 c heavy cream
1/2 c white wine
pinch of nutmeg
16 slices french bread, preferably day old, about 1/2″ thick
6 oz grated cheese, emmental, swiss or gruyere would be good
Cook up the bulk sausage & set aside.
Preheat oven to 400 F.
Cut off the top of the pumpkins as if you were going to carve them into a jack o’lantern. Clean the pulp & seeds from the inside & top. (Save the seeds to roast!). Lightly oil the outside of the pumpkins including the top. Oil a baking pan with sides & place the pumpkins in it.
Mix the cream, wine & nutmeg together.
Put two slices of bread in the bottom of each pumpkin. Then layer in 1/4 of the cheese & 1/4 of the sausage into each pumpkin. Top with 1/4 of the cream sauce. Press down. Repeat the layers using all the remaining bread, cheese, sausage & cream sauce. Do not go over the edge of the pumpkin. Put the tops on the pumpkin.
Place in the oven& bake for about 1 hour until the pumpkin is soft & the filling is bubbling.
They may ooze over a little bit. Let sit a few minutes before serving.
4 servings (can easily be doubled for a bigger party)
© 2005 – 2011 Kathy Lewinski & Susan Cornish
I’d totally eat those delicious guts!
Pass the guts please! This looks “to die for” LOL
I’m not a big fan of pumpkin, but I may have to try these. They look so good!
These look awesome….I’m in MN too, have to send out the Grandson with something warm and hearty before trick or treating.