Sausage & Gruyere Stuffed Pumpkin

Thursday, November 12, 2020

This festive and oh-so-adorable stuffed pumpkin is as impressive on the Thanksgiving table as it is delicious to eat! Our recipe has you brown Italian sausage then combine with wilted kale, crusty French bread, thyme & plenty of gruyere & cheddar cheese. Scoop it all into your hollowed-out pumpkin, drizzle over with nutmeg-spiced cream, replace the pumpkin top then bake to perfection.

20 min active; 2 hr total; serves 4—6

INGREDIENTS:

• 8 oz Italian sausage
• 6 oz kale
• 1 mini baguette
• 2 oz block cheddar
• 2 oz block gruyere
• 1 Tbsp thyme
• 4 green onions
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1 pumpkin (4—6 lb)
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg
• salt & pepper

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. COOK SAUSAGE & KALE

• Preheat oven to 350°F
• Heat a sauté pan over med
• Add sausage and cook 5—7 min, until cooked through
• Remove large stems and roughly chop kale
• Add kale to sausage, stir to just wilt kale, then set aside

2. PREP FILLING

• Cut bread into 1/2” pieces
• Cut cheddar & gruyere into 1/2” pieces
• Chop thyme and thinly slice green onion
• In a bowl, toss together bread, cheese, garlic, thyme, green onion, sausage & kale

3. STUFF PUMPKIN

• Cut a cap out of the top of pumpkin and scoop out seeds and strings (like a jack-o’-lantern)
• Season the inside of pumpkin with salt & pepper and place in a baking dish just a bit larger than the pumpkin (we recommend also serving in this dish so you don’t have to pick it up)
• Note: if you don’t have a baking dish large enough, it can be baked on a rimmed baking sheet. It’s a little riskier to move to a serving dish & it may fall out while baking, but will still be delicious!
• Pack bread mixture into pumpkin (if it’s too much filling, save for another use)
• Combine cream, nutmeg, salt & pepper then pour into pumpkin
• Place the cap back on pumpkin and bake for 1 1/2—2 hours (until flesh of the pumpkin is tender), removing the pumpkin cap for the last 20 min to brown the top

4. GARNISH & GATHER

• Serve pumpkin in baking dish (or carefully transfer to a platter – this is risky!)
• Either cut wedges of the pumpkin & filling or dig into the pumpkin with a large spoon to scoop pumpkin meat with the filling, mix together and serve