Tonight's dinner? - some kind of pumpkin tart

It's Friday, which is generally quiche night, but David has been loyally eating the remains of last week's quiche for his dinner when I was fasting, and so my thoughts turned to a galette - and specifically a pumpkin galette because I have some pumpkin that needs using.

My thoughts immediately turned to Ottolenghi's (maybe Ixta Belfrage's too since the recipe is from their book Flavour) Butternut and sage galette with orange caramel  which I have made a couple of times before, so I got it out to look at and saw that it has a number of steps and takes rather a long time to make - mostly because you rest the pastry twice in the fridge for half an hour each. It's really not difficult and absolutely delicious - a 4 1/2 star thing, but I sort of agreed with the writer of the blog Years of Practice introducing her version of his Butternut orange and sage galette - saying "We’ve eaten it twice and although the list of ingredients is long and it’s quite a faff to make (sorry, Ottolenghi), it gets wolfed down in minutes." It is indeed a bit of a faff. Lots of others have made it and raved about it as well - another example is Butternut squash, orange and sage galette from Joanne Eats Well with Others - but I began to wonder whether there were simpler, but equally delicious recipes out there - or indeed could I just look at them all and then wing it? I guess it's my usual trick.

I know I have also written about this before - well twice actually - Killing Two Birds with One Stone which included a whole lot of others who had also made the recipe. It's obviously very popular which says something. I also wrote A postscript which is about me making it. - Here's the finished result, not looking at all great of course - but I did end with - "the taste was - well - magical."

But it is sort of special - and the pastry which is a kind of flaky pastry is one of the best parts of it. And I'm sorely tempted to at least use the pastry.

However I decided to see what else people did with pumpkin and a galette - so herewith my ramble, grouped with some common kind of approaches.

Virtually all of them placed the pumpkin, on some sort of base - cheesy or oniony on the whole.

So cheese - this varied from mascarpone (Ottolenghi), through all the usual suspects - ricotta, parmesan, feta, goat's cheese, cottage and cream cheese, but generally not mozzarella. or even cheddar or its posh cousin Gruyère. Examples of which are: Pumpkin and feta galette - Days of Jay; Pumpkin and feta galette with brown butter, sage and ginger marmalade - Antoniou; Roast pumpkin and goat's curd galette - Julie Busutti Nishimura/Sydney Morning Herald and  Coles' Zucchini and pumpkin galette which is a little bit different because of the zucchini, tomatoes and pesto.

There is also Nigel Slater's Pumpkin ricotta and rosemary tart from The Guardian which I am separating out because of these comments from Culyzaar on Instagram who made his/her version of it - commenting that:

"I used a different method because I wanted something quick and not so elaborate (Sorry Nigel). So I didn’t pre-cook the pumpkin in a pan and I didn’t pre-bake the puff pastry. I layed out the pastry and topped it with the paste and raw pumpkin and baked it for about 30 minutes. By then the pumpkin was cooked through and the pastry was golden." Culyzaar/Instagram

I suspect that Nigel would have approved - or at least have been interested. It also demonstrates how much of a hurry we all are in when it comes to cooking these days. It seems to have worked though.

Then there's blue cheese. Now we have some blue cheese in the fridge - leftover from providing for guests, because neither of us like blue cheese, and in the past I have used a little Gorgonzola in a spinach lasagne which did indeed add a little bit of umami, but I'm not sure whether I am brave enough. But here they are Pumpkin leek and gorgonzola galette - Danielle Alvarez/The Guardian and Pumpkin galette with blue cheese and thyme - Fred's Restaurant/Gourmet Traveller

An aside here on the extra flavourings that are generally used in these recipes- sometimes with the pumpkin, sometimes in the base, sometimes in the pastry and, indeed, sometimes in all three. I guess I am talking mostly about herbs here and sage is obviously the most frequently used - but there is also thyme and rosemary - assertive herbs all of them. And then there's garlic - sometimes just a touch, sometimes a whole roasted head of garlic which is then squeezed out and mashed. Antoniou's addition of ginger was interesting and not seen elsewhere.

Pumpkin is sweet, and you can either, it seems, emphasise that sweetness by including things like oranges, maple syrup and honey somewhere, or you can add something sweet like apples - as here in this Roasted pumpkin and apple galette - Living the Gourmet. Maybe you could use pears as well? Or elsewhere I saw suggestions for fruit pairings with pumpkin - cranberries, pineapple and mango. Would you though? Cranberries maybe but I'm not sure about the others.

Going back to the base on which you place your pumpkin the most common alternative was caramelised onions, which piqued my interest because I know I have a jar - a long ago gift - of caramelised onions in my reserve jar. I could use it up in one go, thus contributing to my 'use up those ignored extras project' - which is not going all that well by the way. I'm still on that jar of curry paste. Now would that go with a pumpkin galette? Not sure. I'm pretty sure I found another one of these using caramelised onions than the two I am presenting here, but it is a good idea - sometimes they are just mixed in with the pumpkin as well, or mixed with some cheese on the base. The other vegetable I saw mentioned in this way was leeks - sort of onion really; but my two examples are from Nigel with his Butternut and pine nut tart and from Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen with her Butternut squash and caramelized onion galette Nigel has them underneath, Deb mixed in.

The other thing to note is how people treat their pumpkin. Sliced, chopped and somewhere in between - maybe somebody even just mashes cooked pumpkin - roasted beforehand, steamed, or just left raw, with or without flavourings and ultimately combined with another vegetable ... The possibilities are endless. As always.

And did I mention the huge variation in pastry - from Ottolenghi's variation of flaky pastry, normal shortcrust, puff pastry and filo. Pastry with cheese, pastry with herbs, pastry with a mix of flours, olive oil, butter, lard ...

So many choices. I barely know where to begin. I do love Ottolenghi's pastry but I think I'll probably keep it for the next 'special' occasion. And I never have a great deal of success with puff pastry for this kind of thing. Filo? Interesting, but I don't have any. Although I can always buy some of course - we are off to the shops shortly. But I think I'll stick to my normal shortcrust with a little bit of polenta in it - and maybe some Parmesan and sage this time.

I like roast pumpkin, and I do like ricotta. Lots of time to think about it.

And did I mention that Nigel, when speaking of pumpkin in general says:

"The sweetness of the pumpkin and winter squash family works best with something very savoury. I often marry slow-cooked sausages, whose skins have turned sticky, with sweet and fluffy pumpkin mash"

For which he offers this recipe for Sausage and pumpkin mash (My Madeleine) - the sausages for which are roasted coated with mustards, honey and lemon juice - which sounds like a perfect pairing with pumpkin. He also has a recipe for these sausages with carrot mash elsewhere.

And you know I did at one point ponder on bacon. Maybe some sliced roasted sausage à la Nigel would fit. Or would it burn? And it's a bit of an extra faff. I did see a pumpkin and chorizo quiche on the Taste website. Or how could I include some bacon.

And incidentally the piece that the author of My Madeleine wrote was rather wonderful. I have added her website to my list of websites to look at properly some day. It was a little surprise at the end of a post.

YEARS GONE BY

July 17

2025 - Do I need this book?

2024 - Nothing

2023 - Lucky number 7 - I got my blog birthday date wrong that year

2022 - Nothing

2021 - Missing

2020 - Missing

2019 - A postscript on spring greens from Jane Grigson

2018 - Nothing

2017 - On holiday

2016 - Oh to be skinny again