If we think of autumn, pumpkin is one of the products of the earth that comes to mind. Its orange colour recalls that of the leaves and its mere presence on the table creates an atmosphere even without cooking it.
If we give it to a child, think about dressing it up but, when brought to the kitchen, the pumpkin will immediately create excellent risotto or fantastic soups.
And this is true from the north to the south while there are areas like Mantua that have made it a symbol of their cuisine.
And the dish that I would like to prepare is really a soup or rather a cream soup because it is the one I am most fond of. The one that reminds me of my childhood: pumpkin cream soup with chanterelle mushrooms scented with aromatic herbs.
Strangely, there are 500 varieties of pumpkin but less than 10 are edible. And among these I chose the yellow one for our dish. At this time they can be seen in many fields in our area of the upper Ciociaria.
Recipe for the Yellow pumpkin cream soup with herb flavoured chanterelle mushrooms
We take a piece of pumpkin we cut it into small cubes so it will cook faster.
Then we slice a quarter of a small onion and cut a piece of potato into cubes.
We take a pan, put some oil and let it heat then add the pumpkin, the potato and the onion. We brown everything and at a certain point add some broth or hot water and let it cook.
At the end of cooking we take an immersion blender and make the cream.
Separately, clean our mushrooms, cut them into julienne strips and toss them in a pan with hot oil for a few minutes. When cooked, add the aromatic herbs such as thyme, marjoram and parsley, well chopped.
Before serving, heat the pumpkin cream and add the mushrooms.
The dish will tend to be sweet but the salinity and minerality of the mushrooms will balance the dish.
The wine? A classic in the glass beside the pumpkin is the Bianco di Custoza. Not to get too far from Mantua.
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