Recipe: Marcus Wareing’s Parmesan, Oregano and Onion Baked Pumpkin

Hosting a Halloween dinner party? Or just looking for delicious autumn recipes? Try this parmesan, oregano and onion baked pumpkin from Marcus Wareing’s cookbook, Marcus Everyday.

Recipe: Parmesan, Oregano and Onion Baked Pumpkin

Ingredients

Serves 4

• 100g freekeh
• 60g butter
• 2 onions, thinly sliced
• ½ nutmeg, finely grated
• 100g kale, tough stems removed and
• leaves thinly sliced
• 100g fresh breadcrumbs
• ½ bunch of oregano, leaves picked
• 100g Parmesan cheese, grated
• 1 delica pumpkin, or kabocha squash, top removed and seeds scooped out
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/gas 6.
2. Cook the freekeh according to the packet instructions. Drain well.
3. Melt 45g of the butter in a large frying pan over medium high heat, add the onions and nutmeg, season well with salt and pepper and cook for about 15 minutes until golden, stirring frequently. Add the kale and cook for a further 3–4 minutes, until soft.
4. Put the onion mixture in a bowl and add the cooked freekeh, breadcrumbs, oregano and Parmesan. Season well with salt and pepper and stuff inside the pumpkin, replacing the ‘top’.
5. Place in a roasting tray. Melt the remaining butter and brush it over the outside of the pumpkin, again seasoning it well with salt and pepper. Bake in the oven for 1 hour, until the pumpkin is cooked through.
6. Remove from the oven, quarter the pumpkin and serve.

MARCUS’ TIP: Instead of discarding pumpkin seeds and the unwanted flesh that surrounds the seeds, place all of this in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil, then simmer for an hour or two and you can create a stock to use in soups.

Marcus Everyday by Marcus Wareing, with photography by Susan Bell (HarperCollins, £20)