Feasts and Festivals: Punkie Night

Pumpkin Alfredo

4 (3/4 lb) pumpkins
1/2 cup cream
1/4 cup milk
1 clove garlic, smashed
1 teaspoon dried thyme or 1 tablespoon fresh
1 ounce parmesan, grated

Preheat oven to 300˚ Fahrenheit. Cut the tops off of each pumpkin and scrape out the seeds and strings. Reserve the tops.

Wrap each pumpkin in tin foil (in case one bursts) and place in a baking pan. Set aside.

In a saucepan, heat the cream, milk, garlic and thyme over medium heat until the mixture starts to bubble. Remove from the heat, take out the garlic and stir in the parmesan. Divide between the pumpkins.

Replace the lid on each of the pumpkins, place them in the middle of the oven and bake for between one and one-and-a-half hours, or until softened.

Serves 2

Adapted from "Roast Pumpkin with Cream, Thyme and Parmesan" in BBC Good Food.

I made Pumpkin Alfredo for Punkie Night, which is a holiday from the area around Hinton St. George in Somerset. According to legend, a group of local men got plastered at a fair and couldn't find their way back home. Their wives had to go out in search of them, carrying punkie lanterns (which are actually mangolds, but the festivities have evolved to use jack o'lanterns made from pumpkins). Rather than candy, children go around asking for candles for their lanterns.*

Church of St. George in Hinton St. George

*"Punkie Night" in Julia Jones and Barbara Deer, Cattern Cakes and Lace: A Calendar of Feasts (London: Dorling Kindersley, 1987), 109.
Vintage pumpkin illustration from The Graphics Fairy