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Pumpkins
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Identity Card
Name: Pumpkin
Category: Vegetable: Cucurbitaceae
Zone of production: Throughout Italy, but especially widespread in Lombardy and the Veneto
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There are a host of reasons why the humble pumpkin should be better known and more widely used. Besides being an incredibly versatile food and quite nutritious, it also happens to be very low in calories. Like all fruits and vegetables with a red or orange pulp, the pumpkin is rich in vitamin A, essential for cell regeneration, and potassium. It is essential that you know how to select a good pumpkin. If you're not careful, after cooking you may discover that the pulp is bitter and hardly suitable for further culinary use. This is why recipe books almost always recommend baking the pulp in the oven or stewing it before utilizing it as an ingredient; having completed this initial operation, you can use it in a vast number of ways.
Tortelli filled with pumpkin is a classic culinary specialty in the area around the city of Mantua in the far-northern region of Lombardy and Reggio nell'Emilia in the region of Emilia-Romagna. The city of Ferrara, which is also in Emilia-Romagna, has pumpkin cappellacci. The basic differences between these two kinds of stuffed pasta lies, first of all, in the presence of amaretto cookie crumbs in the filling (typical of the tortelli), and secondly, in the shape, the former being rectangular, the latter having a round shape.
Other classic dishes from the north of Italy featuring variously-shaped pumpkins include risotto, gnocchi with pumpkin, as well as creamy sauces and cakes and sweets. However, pumpkin is not an exclusive prerogative of northern Italian cuisine. In Naples, for example, they make an excellent pasta topping featuring pumpkin enhanced with the addition of hot red peppers, garlic and parsley. This preparation is used to top Rigatoni or Bucatini. A more modern, sophisticated dish that can also work beautifully for the Christmas table would be Casarecce pasta with pumpkin and prawns. Selecting the right wine is no easy task, however, because the characteristic sweet taste of the pumpkin is often combined with other foods with the opposite characteristics. For people who prefer to go with the dominant flavor of the vegetable, a good choice would be something like a mildly sweet Malvasia, slightly sparkling and served well chilled.
Those who prefer to balance flavors, on the other hand, will probably be more inclined to opt for the dry appeal of a good Lambrusco, to compensate for the impact of the sweet flavor. The latest news regarding the imaginative use of pumpkins is that they are being utilized for ice-cream; the rich taste of pumpkin ice cream is well worth tasting.
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