Pumpkin and Goat Cheese Orzo for Halloween 2012

My pumpkin carving skills are evolving. From my first pumpkin in 2009, there have been definite improvements. 2010. 2011. But this year is definitely my best pumpkin yet. Partly because I bought a big enough pumpkin! Which also meant that the scooped-out insides gave me enough flesh to cook with.

I started from this template, for a nice, detailed cat face, but then made some subtle modifications to it to make it more Maine Coon-esque (and re-sized it to fit my pumpkin).

The model

Urchin provided valuable assistance as a model. The nose had to be cuter, the ear-tufts more exaggerated and the cheeks fuller and fluffier. So I ended up with with this.

The template

I'm terribly impressed with my £1 pumpkin carving tool-kit. It just keeps on going, even when I am sure the blades are about to snap.

The pumpkin

After my pumpkin-carving efforts, I was left with a lot of pumpkin pulp and seeds. I washed the seeds thoroughly, tossed them in a mixture of chipotle, soy and maple syrup and toasted them in the oven until they were brown and crunchy.

I simmered the pumpkin flesh in a little vegetable stock until it was tender then mashed it with a fork to a fairly runny puree. I added a couple of slices of goats cheese and a couple of tablespoons of creme fraiche, then stirred in some crisp little cubes of panceta (not a spelling mistake, it's the Spanish version of pancetta), some cooked orzo pasta (500g raw weight) and a bag of baby spinach leaves. I tipped the whole thing into a pyrex lasagne dish and dotted the top with more slices of goats cheese.

I baked it until the cheese looked like toasted marshmallows and the edges of the orzo were starting to crisp. Before serving, I sprinkled the top with the toasted pumpkin seeds.

Not marshmallows - goat cheese slices

I'm going to send this delicious, comforting bowlful to Simona for Presto Pasta Nights, the long-running (soon ending) weekly pasta round-up started by Ruth at Once Upon A Feast. It must be the longest-running food blogging event around, surely?

It was a very successful bowl of pasta. I do love orzo - I don't care how many people say that all pasta tastes the same, they are wrong, orzo tastes different. The sweet pumpkin, salty-creamy cheese, salty-crunchy panceta and clean, minerally spinach worked very well together, with the salty, spicy pumpkin seeds adding another layer of texture. And it is just such a satisfying thing to base a meal around leftovers!

All the colours of the Irish flag - not usually associated with pasta

 So. The pumpkin. She looks like she is planning world domination, but it is a distinctly Maine Coon face.

Ended up menacing rather than cute