It’s been a week since Halloween, and pumpkins still sit on porch stoops, soggy and slumped over. When I was growing up, my sister and I used to have competitions to see whose jack-o-lantern would stay intact the longest; they’d usually make it at least through Thanksgiving. We loved to kick the molding pumpkins around and marvel at the blue and purple webs of mold that formed within the triangle eyes. Nowadays I look at pumpkins and think of their food counterparts: the pie pumpkins that can be baked into sweet scrumptious chunks of golden fleshy goodness.

A baked pumpkin tastes nothing like Libby’s canned pumpkin you pick up in the store. Roasted pumpkin takes on a much sweeter, stronger flavor and adds a nice texture to any baked pumpkin dessert. Pie pumpkins are smaller, denser, and a deeper orange than your classic jack-o-lantern pumpkin. If you can’t find one in the grocery store, you can substitute another type of winter squash (butternut is an excellent substitute) or sweet potatoes. Below is a recipe for spiced pumpkin bread with home-roasted pumpkin, but you can also use your roasted pumpkin for pumpkin pie, pumpkin curry, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin soup or really anything else. If you have extra pumpkin you’re not ready to use soon, simply put it in a Tupperware and freeze for later use.

Roasted Pumpkin Puree
1 3-lb. pie pumpkin
tinfoil

Preheat oven to 400 ºF. Carefully cut the pumpkin into six big wedges and cut out the stem. Scoop out the seeds and pulp (you can rinse the seeds off and toast them if you like). Arrange wedges in a baking dish and pour at least 1/2 inch of water into the dish. Cover with tinfoil so that the pumpkin will steam and cook quicker, and then bake until tender throughout, about 40 minutes. When tender, remove from oven and scoop the flesh out of the skins. Puree the pumpkin with a hand blender or by mashing well by hand with a potato masher or fork.

Spiced Pumpkin Bread
1 2/3 cups flour (you can use a mixture of white and whole wheat flours and up to 1/2 cup wheat germ)
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon each cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil
1/3 cup water
1 cup pureed pumpkin

Preheat oven to 350 ºF. Measure dry ingredients (all ingredients up to the eggs) into a bowl and stir to combine. In a large bowl, combine wet ingredients (eggs through pumpkin) and stir. Fold dry ingredients into wet, stirring until just combined. Pour into a greased loaf pan or prepared muffin tins. Bread will take about 60 minutes to bake and muffins will take about 20-30. To test for doneness, insert a toothpick into the center of the bread. If it comes out dry, the bread is done.

Variations: Mix up to 1/2 cup chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans) or raisins into the prepared batter. Or cut up crystallized candied ginger into small chunks and add up to 1/4 cup of that into the batter.