Meg Reilley photo
Pumpkin Pie
Everyone has his or her heart-fluttering produce. Spring enthusiasts get downright giddy at the first sign of strawberries. Summer lovers are prone to spontaneous happy dancing whenever watermelons make their debut. Winter fans throw up their hands in praise when blood oranges and Meyer lemons go on display at the market.
For me, it’s all about pumpkins and winter squashes. When the nights begin to get a bit cooler here in the Southern Appalachians and the fireflies bid the nighttime scene adieu, area farmers market tables begin groaning under the weight of members of the genus Cucurbita and the family Cucurbitaceae. That’s where I find my bliss.
Pumpkins and “winter squash”—a catch-all term that includes acorn, butternut, candy roaster, delicata, kabocha, red kuri, spaghetti, turban, and an heirloom varietal long familiar in Appalachian foodways, cushaw—are rich in nutrients, subtle and sweet in flavor, and robust in color and ornamentation. They are hardy, sturdy, and equally welcome adorning an autumnal porch display or roasted, mashed, and baked into a pie or savory dish. To me, they’re quite possibly the perfect food. My belief in this is so strong, in fact, that a baked and pureed butternut squash, grown in my garden, was the first solid food I gave to my son at age 6 months.
More than beauty and flavor endears these harbingers of autumn to me. It’s their stalwartness, if such an anthropomorphic characteristic can be bestowed onto a family of vegetables. They take their time getting to the right size and heft, if the vine borers don’t take them out first, and then they last. They stick around—holding out and hanging on and preserving until you’re ready for them. In that sense, you might consider them the workhorses of the vegetable patch. Lacking the soft, watery, ephemeral flesh of their summer kin, pumpkins and winter squashes can meet your edible needs for months, once properly cured and stored.
That staying power, shared also by their autumnal cohort, the apple, pushes pumpkins and winter squashes out of the fair-weather-friend zone and places them front and center in the tried-and-true realm. In a culture besieged by here-and-gone media and rapid-fire conversations, these guys are the antidotes—the slow pokes whose company enriches and enlivens. Beautiful to behold, delicious to eat, and in it for the long haul, pumpkins and winter squashes are the true edible friends you need in your life.
About the author: Candler, N.C., homesteader Ashley English is the author of seven books. See smallmeasure.com.
Sage Crust Pumpkin Pie
I love using fresh herbs in desserts. Here I’ve tucked a generous helping of sage into the crust of a pumpkin pie. The herb’s earthy, grounding flavor is a good foil to the sweetness of the pie filling. If you’d like to impart even more flavor, consider adding an additional tablespoon of minced sage to the filling.
Makes one nine-inch pie
You Will Need:
For the Crust
- 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
- 1/3 cup + 2 tablespoons ice water
- 15 fresh sage leaves, minced
For the Filling
- 2 cups pumpkin puree*
- ¾ cup light brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- ¾ cup heavy cream
- ½ cup milk
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
*TIP: For pumpkin puree, cut a baking pumpkin (5-6 pounds) in half. Place flesh side down on a rimmed baking sheet and roast at 425 degrees F until the flesh has softened, about 45-50 minutes. Cool slightly, then remove the seeds, scoop the flesh out of the skin, and puree it in a food processor until smooth. Or you can simply use solid-pack canned pumpkin, or cooked and pureed cushaw squash.
To Make:
Prepare the Crust
1) Mix the flour and salt together in a medium-large mixing bowl. Using a pastry cutter or two forks, incorporate the butter until the mixture resembles a coarse meal (you should still have rather large bits of butter when you’re done). Slowly drizzle in the ice water. Stir with a mixing spoon until the dough starts to clump.
2) Transfer the dough onto a floured work surface, and fold it together into itself using your hands. The dough should come together easily but should not feel overly sticky. Shape the dough into a flattened disk. Place in the refrigerator and chill for at least an hour.
3) Remove the chilled pie dough disk from the refrigerator. Roll it out into a 12-inch circle on a lightly floured surface. Scatter the minced sage evenly over the surface of the dough and, using the rolling pin, press in the sage until it becomes incorporated throughout.
4) Transfer the pastry dough to a lightly buttered nine-inch pie pan. Trim the overhang to one inch and crimp the edges decoratively. Place the pan in the refrigerator to chill while preparing the filling.
Prepare the filling
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Combine all of the filling ingredients in a medium-size mixing bowl. Whisk until well incorporated.
Assemble the pie
Pour the filling into the chilled crust. Bake at 350 degrees F for 60-70 minutes, until the filling has set and doesn’t wobble in the center when gentle touched. Cool at least one hour before serving.