Pumpkin Baked with Button Mushrooms and Potatoes
Here the pumpkin does double duty: it’s both the dish and the edible bowl that holds a filling of potatoes and button mushrooms in a tomato-onion sauce. The pumpkin’s sweet flesh plays off the mushrooms’ savory heft, a pairing that runs deep in Ukrainian country cooking, where pumpkin was the all-purpose vegetable for any occasion.
For even cooking, the potatoes and mushrooms are fried separately until half-done first; inside the pumpkin they only finish and drink up the sauce. A ladleful of water in the onion-tomato mixture keeps the filling moist while the thick pumpkin walls soften. It bakes at 180–200°C (about 355–390°F): roughly 15–20 minutes with the “lid” on, then uncovered with a shower of cheese for another 15.
Worth knowing: the cheese goes on only at the end, once the lid is off, so it can melt and brown instead of scorching under cover. Wild mushrooms are lovely in place of button mushrooms, and if you want more heat, stir a clove of garlic and a pinch of paprika into the sauce. Bring the pumpkin to the table whole and spoon the filling onto plates along with pieces of the roasted flesh.
Part of Ukrainian cuisine — 301 more recipes in the section.
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Ingredients
Instructions
Cut a "lid" off the pumpkin, scoop out the insides, and trim away part of the flesh.
Fry the mushrooms in vegetable oil. Cut the potatoes into batons and fry until half-done.
Slice the onion into half-rings and fry. Add the tomato paste to the onion and warm it through. Pour in 1 ladle of water and stir.
Chop the parsley and add it to the sauce.
Grease the inside of the pumpkin with vegetable oil. Add the potatoes and mushrooms, lightly salt them. Pour the tomato-onion sauce over the top.
Cover the pumpkin with the "lid," set it on a baking sheet, and bake at 180-200°C for about 15-20 minutes.
Remove the lid, sprinkle the contents with cheese, and bake for about another 15 minutes at 180°C until fully done.
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