More Than Decoration
1. Beyond the jack-o’-lantern, dinner. Most pumpkins are carved or canned. They end up as ghouls or pies. But pumpkin is squash, squash is healthy and tasty, and
this particular squash has a rich, sweet, fresh flavor that lends itself to soups, stews, risottos, or a simple mash—made
sweet with butter, maple syrup, and nutmeg or savory with browned butter, sage, and grated Parmesan.
2. That said, carving pumpkins are not really eating pumpkins. Small, thinner-skinned eating varieties are grown for sweetness and flavor that the more fibrous jack-o'-lantern pumpkins
lack. So if you're cooking fresh rather than canned, look for varieties like Small Sugar, New England Pie, and Long Island
Cheese (which got its name from its wheel-of-curds shape and cooks beautifully). Sure, you can eat the carving kind, but it
will taste more like potato than pumpkin.
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