Fun with a sugar pumpkin

Many hours later I am still feeling congested and worn out. I guess this means plenty of time to blog. I read a huge chunk of house of leaves today, about 130 more pages, and man, that book is getting intense. The literal confusion within the book itself, induced by ridiculous footnotes, bizzare formatting, and a lack of an identifiable author, dramatically contributes to the terror of the house present in the novel.
Last fall and winter, when I was studying abroad in Graz, Austria, I discovered the magic of cooking with pumpkins. In Graz, pumpkins are a great fall staple, and a wide variety of edible gourds are sold in grocery stores all over the place (by contrast, generally only sugar pumpkins are sold in AR as edible pumpkins, and the rest are sold as decorative). I learned to cook a wide variety of pumpkins that I had never even seen in the United States in an assortment of ways, ranging from simple stir frying, to mashing, to delicious hearty sweet and savory pumpkin soups. I still, however, encounter difficulties cooking with this unfamiliar ingredient, as my only prior knowledge of pumpkin cooking was making pumpkin pie from a can. However! Last week I baked a sweet pumpkin bread (but I didn't bake it long enough, it was doughy in the middle and has condensed down to thick pumpkin pudding of sorts), and I had about three cups of leftover pumpkin puree that was about the consistency of applesauce.

And I was hungry.

So, after a little time researching uses for pumpkin puree and pilfering through my kitchen, I concocted this great pumpkin sauce. It's based on a recipe that called for several ingredients that I simply didn't have on hand, so I did some improvising, and it turned out so well that I want to post it here so the world can enjoy it. It's a pumpkin cream sauce that should be served over pasta.

Directions: Boil a sugar pumpkin in as little water as possible. The pumpkin should be peeled and cut into small triangles, then water should be boiled and poured over it. Once the pumpkin is soft, blend the water and the pumpkin together to make a nice soft applesaucy puree. Should definitely not use water any higher than the pumpkin, which should be as low as possible in the pot. Measure out about three cups of it for this pasta sauce. Take the rest and eat it, or boil it with maple syrup, sugar, cloves, cinnamon, and about three apples to make a wicked good apple butter.

Pour that pumpkin into a pot, put it on the stove, then turn the stove on to medium low. Keep that stuff warm! Add black pepper, salt, cloves, and sage to taste. Also add one bullion cube. I used veggie bullion, enough to make six ounces. Worked out perfectly. In the meantime, dice three cloves of garlic and one medium sized onion. Sautee the suckers in some olive oil, butter, or your oil of choice. Once they are nice and soft, put them into the pumpkin mixture. Stir it all pretty well, and keep stirring. Once you are comfortable with the consistency of this sauce, turn the stove off, and add about half a cup of heavy cream. Stir well, and serve immediately over nice warm delicious pasta. Shave some white cheddar or other mild-ish cheese over the top of the pumpkin sauce.

Better than from a box, I swear!

Alright, back to reading.