No, this Pumpkin Stuffed with Fontina, Italian Sausange, and Rotini didn’t come from that book. Given the content around here lately I wouldn’t fault you for thinking I own only one cookbook. Yeah, Ms. Greenspan’s tour de force does seem to occupy a disproportionate amount of my culinary bandwidth these days. There is a reason for this level of devotion: the book is damn good.
I do, however, own other cookbooks. In fact, I own dozens of them. Hundreds really. And yet still, my decades-old collection grows weekly, much to my husbands chagrin. My collection grows with those I seek out because they interest me enough to buy, and with those that publishers and PR hacks send me in the misguided hope that I will compel at least one of my 10 readers to shell out cash and buy.
I read them all. True. Yet you won’t see much mention of them in this blog thingie. Mostly they fail to connect in any personal way, you know, the way Dorie has done with her masterpiece. None of them created any sense of urgency by asking me to jump up and cook them all, let alone share them with you here, one at a time. None of them to date has featured a pumpkin stuffed with anything.
Most of these books leave me with more questions than answers about their topics: who decided the world needed an entire book devoted to making marshmallows? Who laughed out loud at the pitch meeting for the chicken book with sado-masochistic preparations? Who believes Gwyneth Paltrow cooks her own food? Lastly, how many “paleo-cookbooks” need to be published each year? How many ways to cook seeds and dirt into breakfast muffins do we need?
Suprsingly, each of these books were well-received, Each of them found numerous devotees among bloggers who were all too eager to share. Just goes to show you how very little I know about these things. I can’t understand this enthusiasm, unless it could have something to do with the fact that so many of these books arrive on our blog doorsteps for free. But again, what do I know. No publisher is knocking on my door demanding I write a book. Sorry, its not in the plan and besides, my marshmallow idea is already taken.
What makes a good cookbook?
For a cookbook to get my attetion and hold me enrapt for 5 years as I work through each and very recipe I will need more. I will need:
- A culinary focus with broader based appeal. Any theme that promises to take its subject to “a whole new level” has to actually deliver on the promise. If the book asks me to reconsider what I think I already know about the topic, the book will languish in the garage next to my copy of “Fat Free Italian Cooking” if it doesn’t deliver.
- Interesting recipe headnotes. I want to understand why the author included a particular recipe in the book. If I wanted a cookbook without headnotes I’d just go back to the 1950’s and get one.
- A book with sidebars to teach me something new or offer some useful information or adaptation tid bits of information. A good alternate way to to enjoy a recipe is like getting a twofer.
- Great visual design, well-written recipes, and enticing photography. Please don’t write the book so I have to turn to page 230 to get a recipe for an ingredient spec‘d out for a recipe I am reading on page 57. if you can’t make the food look good in your own book then what hope do we unpublished mortals have? Please remember this point before you set out to write a book about stew.
Why am I telling you all of this? I may have found just such a book in the newly published “MELT: The Art of Macaroni and Cheese by Stephanie Stiavetti and Garrett McCord. Not only do I want to curl up and stay with it a long time, but I am pretty close to committing to cooking my way through the entire thing.
No, seriously, I think I might. Right after I finish this pumpkin stuffed with…
With “Melt”, authors Stephanie Stiavetti (The Culinary Life) and Garrett McCord (Vanilla Garlic) give us “more” and then some. This book manages to take the already unniversally appealing macaroni and cheese , a dish we all like and think we know pretty well, and take it to an exotic and delicious place you didn’t know existed — but now can’t wait to go to. It is the cookbook equivalent to having your spouse come home with a ton of travel brochures and plane tickets. If you ever assumed mac and cheese was ‘simple’, the inventiveness of these two force you to reconsider.
The first thing you do on your Melt journey is toss out your cheddar! These guys are intent on teaching you quite a bit about today’s cheese varieties, begging you to Petit Basque and Brillat-Savain off of your cheese boards and toss them into your casseroles.
The book is full of instant classics such as this Pumpkin Stuffed with Fontina, Italian Sausage, and Macaroni. I have already made this nearly half a dozen times. Pro tip: double the filling you make so you can make it two nights in a row, no problem.
The old classics you think you know, such as Tuna Noodle Casserole, get the MELT treatment here to separate you from repressed nightmarish memories of your grandmother’s version. For lovers of all things new and trendy, the “Drunken Goat with Edamame, Fennel, and Rotini” or the “Savory Sheep’s Milk Ricotta with Raspberries and Capellini” are certain to please. And really, how is that for inventiveness?
And as good fortune would have it, Matt Armanariz does the honors with the gorgeous and colorful photography. Nearly every recipe gets its own full sized photo treatment. If you were ever wondering whether or not photographing 50 versions of mac and cheese could get a bit tedious and redundant, Matt’s beautiful photos won’t disappoint one bit.
Me, some Doristas, Dorie, and author Garret McCord
I had been a fan of Garrett’s amusing and honest blog writing for quite some time, so when I saw he would be attending the same International Food Blogging conference I had planned to attend last September, I made it my mission to track him down and befriend him. I succeeded. Lo and behold we ended up spending quite a bit of time together while this book was still on the cusp of its release. I recall not looking very enthused when he first told me his book was going to be about mac and cheese! Sorry Garrett, but you most certainly got the last laugh as I never could have imagined it would be anything like this.
Pumpkin Stuffed with Fontina, Italian Sausage, and Macaroni
Garret and Stephanie’s book was barely out for 5 minutes when it became abundantly clear that this Pumpkin Stuffed with Fontina, Italian Sausage, and Macaroni recipe was going to be an early favorite of mine, and and “instant classic” by its readers. Food bloggers went nuts for it. My own creative twist was to substitute rotini for the macaroni. Bam! My inventiveness was merely because rotini was all I had on hand. Please don’t mistake me for a real food blogger! Nothing here suggested a changing – it all seemed so perfect –including its table-ready presentation. A full meal in a gourd? Yes please. Bring it to the table and slice it up. Bravo guys. You should expect to see a lot more from this book here, Dorie permitting.
Recipe courtesy of Garret McCord at Vanilla Garlic
This is what you will need:
- 1 sugar pumpkin, or other sweet variety (not a carving pumpkin), about 5 pounds
- Sea salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ¼ pound mild Italian pork sausage
- 4 ounces rotini pasta
- 5 ounces Fontina, cut into ¼-inch cubes
- 2 ounces Gruyère, cut into ¼-inch cubes
- 3 scallions, diced
- 1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
- 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
- 1 teaspoon chopped fresh sage
- 1 cup heavy cream
This is how you make it:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F/178°C. Cut a circle from the top of the pumpkin at a 45-degree angle, the way you would cut open a pumpkin to make a jack-o’-lantern, and set aside. Scoop out the seeds and strings as best you can. Generously salt and pepper the inside of the pumpkin, pop the top back on it, place it on a rimmed baking dish (since the pumpkin may leak or weep a bit), and bake for 45 minutes.
- Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a sauté pan over medium heat. If the sausages are in their casings, remove the meat and discard the casings. Crumble the sausage meat into small chunks and cook until lightly browned. Remove the sausage from the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside to cool. Discard the drippings, or save for gravy or what have you.
- Also while the pumpkin bakes, cook the pasta in a large pot of salted boiling water until al dente. Drain through a colander and rinse with cool water to stop the cooking process.
- In a bowl, toss together the Fontina, Gruyère, sausage, pasta, scallions, and herbs. Once the pumpkin is done baking, take it out of the oven and fill it with the macaroni and cheese. Pour the cream over the filling. Place the top back on the pumpkin and bake for 1 hour, taking the top off for the last 15 minutes so the cheese on top of the filling can properly brown. If the top cream still seems a bit too wobbly and liquid, give it another 10 minutes in the oven. The cream may bubble over a bit, which is fine. If the pumpkin splits while baking, as occasionally happens, be thankful you set it in a rimmed baking dish and continue to bake as normal.
- Allow the pumpkin to rest for 10 minutes before serving. Be careful moving the dish, as the pumpkin may be fragile. You can serve this dish two ways: Cut it into sections and serve them, or just scoop out the insides with scrapings of the pumpkin flesh for each serving. Either way is just dandy. Salt and pepper to taste.
Disclosure time: I did not receive a free copy of “Melt” and I had to buy my own copy! Some friend you turned out to be Garrett! I’ve bought at least 5 since for lucky friends and family. You will need to buy your own too since I am not giving any more away. Shell out your cash and get your own. You will be glad you did.
The wine featured here, on the other hand, was a gift from the fine folks at Alamos Wines. I’m not in the habit of accepting freebies but how am I to refuse free wine?
Not only did I meet Garret at IFBC last September but I also met the fine people from Alamos Wines and they were a real hoot. They were serving up some mighty fine Argentinian wines and I must have been hanging around their booth so much that they finally promised to send me free wine to get rid of me. Bottles of Malbec and this lovely Torrantes showed up on my doorstep not long after I got home. It was probably casting against type to serve the citrusy, peach Torrantes with a Fontina cheese and sausage pasta but I the crisp finish I remembered so well from my first tasting was a welcome foil for the roasted pumpkin. (I’ve earmarked the Malbec for something coming up soon. Thanks Alamos!
There is something insides of me that believes you can stuff anything in a pumpkin and it would be delicious. I will stay away from the obvious Italian sausage comment…that would be wrong?
I anxiously await that recipe for dirt & seed muffins from your upcoming “dirt” cookbook. Perhaps if you put some bacon marshmallows on it? Or sprinkles? Heck, why not use both? True genius can not be fettered.
P.S. Malbec should not be earmarked – it wants to be drunk, now…
What a beautifully written and thoughtful review. We certainly are of a like mind on what makes a good cookbook, and this one is a gem. I always shy away from these “one topic” books – but this is really wonderful – so much great information. A cook could work his or her way through it with pleasure. For me, many of the cheeses were new, so it’s been a joy. I purchased a copy late last summer, after my friend Judy Witts Francini reviewed it – and made this very same dish. It is fabulous! Happy New Year!
I completely agree with you about what makes a good cookbook. I am sick to death of books devoted to a boring, narrow theme … how many days in a row would one want to eat marshmallows for god’s sake??? That said, as gorgeous and tempting as the mac and cheese book looks, if I cooked from it regularly I would be as big as a double wide trailer in about a month. I do hope this post begins a trend of people actually buying things for themselves, it’s such a novel idea!
You always make me laugh: cooking seeds and dirt into breakfast muffins… you forgot the smoothies. People are living on these things? I’m not sure if I should let my mac and cheese queen daughter hear about this cookbook: MELT. I am still trying to keep my weight in check after the wonderful dessert cookbook you recommended by Alice Medrich… but wow, that stuffed pumpkin is spectacular.
This post was worth the wait. 🙂 I also agree with you about cookbooks.
Now I want Dorie’s book and I want it bad. I also want the mac and cheese book, but one thing at a time. You are so right about having to cook many dishes from ONE book to get the true essence of it. I cooked for over a year out of Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking and I haven’t scratched the surface.
By the way, the pumpkin dish looks just amazing.
Anyone who writes a really good cookbook needs to show it to you first. What a lovely, well-written review about Melt and all that other stuff about crap cookbooks.
Happy New Year, my friend.
Happy New Year Trevor! Love you so much and hate the fact that I don’t have enough time to swing my as often as I would like to fill my heart with your honest writing and delicious photography. Please, lets make it a point to hang out at least once in this year. 🙂 Hugs! -Josie
Ok well apparently I need this book in my life. Especially after reading a review like this!! Plus… a pumpkin stuffed with mac and cheese?? Brilliant!
Oh man does your version of stuffed pumpkin look amazing! You always make me smile!
I should have been hanging out at the wine booth…I got offers from ICE (0 calorie soda). It was good, but it wasn’t wine!! Happy New Year, Trevor!!
Hmmm. I wonder who you mean? XOGREG
Ha! Funny. I’ve been eyeing “Melt” and only heard good things about it so far. I linked to your post on my blog at: http://www.rawinthemiddle.com/link-love-7/
That looks awesome! Think I’m going to cook it for the family on halloween