Sunday was spent mostly dealing with this beast…

This is a Zucca de Marmellata grown on our allotment, seeds bought from Sarah Raven.  After doing a bit of research it seems to be an Italian variety often known as a jam pumpkin – funnily enough for making pumpkin jam.

In total this pumpkin weighed over 20kg – can’t quite believe it!  As you might be able to see from the top picture it had started to go mouldy in the centre, so we will have to ‘process’ the other pumpkin we have of this size soon.

After chopping the pumpkin into chunks and removing the seeds, we cut in into smaller slices and baked them in the oven for about 40 minutes until they were soft.

Next we sliced the skins off and then put them through my trusty mouli (I think that’s what its called?) – whatever it is, it’s French, well made and makes fantastic mashed potato.  This time it was put to use on pureeing all the pumpkin.

Finally after many hours of chopping, baking, pureeing and one large bucketful for the compost, we have a lot of jars, pots and tupperware of pumpkin puree.  We left the puree unadulterated without any other flavours, that way we can use it in whatever recipe we fancy – sweet or savoury.

The first pumpkin puree was made into a Pumpkin Cinnamon Spice Bread – photos of this to follow soon.

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