I’ll jump right to the punch line: this Mac & Cheese Stuffed Pumpkin was the best macaroni and cheese recipe I’ve ever made. That sounds overstated, but it’s true. And the thing is…I have a feeling I’ll want to say that after each recipe I try from Melt: The Art of Macaroni and Cheese.
Forgive me, I may gush a little here but it is warranted. I thought I knew mac and cheese. This cookbook showed me nuances and places and directions that I never imagined mac and cheese could go.
Take this recipe I’m sharing today, for example – which, in the book, is called Pumpkin Stuffed with Fontina, Italian Sausage and Macaroni. From the first glance, you know you’ve got something unique (my 3-year old has been bragging to everyone this week, “Mommy made mac and cheese in a pumpkin!!”). It’s not just a beautiful presentation, though – it tastes amazing too. The easy melting Fontina and Gruyère cheeses, the zesty sausage and woodsy herbs…all of these ingredients incredibly well-matched for the flesh of the sweet sugar pumpkin that contains them.
My friends Stephanie Stiavetti (of The Culinary Life) and Garrett McCord (of Vanilla Garlic) not only know their cheese pairings inside and out, but they showcase them superbly with a deep respect for the ingredients. And the recipes go way beyond just casseroles. It’s all about pairing pasta and amazing cheese, in every delicious way possible. I keep flipping back to the Chicken Breast Stuffed with Leonora Goat Cheese, Star Pasta and Crushed Gingersnaps recipe as well as the sweet section. Yes, there is even dessert-worthy macaroni and cheese in there. The Fromage Blanc, Chevre, Peach and Ghost Pepper Cannelloni is such a dazzling concept!
Without question, this is a book for cheese lovers. While I wasn’t familiar many of the cheeses mentioned, Stephanie and Garrett confidently guide us through what makes each cheese special and the right choice for the dish. Melt is a true celebration of macaroni and cheese – a celebration I highly recommend joining!
Mac & Cheese Stuffed Pumpkin
Prep time: 20 minutes | Cook time: 1 hour 45 minutes | Total time: 2 hours
Yield: 4 servings
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 sugar pumpkin, or other sweet variety (not a carving pumpkin), about 5 pounds
- Sea salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/4 pound mild Italian pork sausage
- 4 ounces elbow macaroni
- 5 ounces Fontina, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
- 2 ounces Gruyère, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
- 3 scallions, diced
- 1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
- 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
- 1 teaspoon chopped fresh sage
- 1 cup heavy cream
DIRECTIONS:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Cut a circle from the top of the pumpkin at a 45-degree angle, the way you would cut open a pumpkin to make a jack-o’-lantern, and set aside. Scoop out the seeds and strings as best you can. Generously salt and pepper the inside of the pumpkin, pop the top back on it, place it on a rimmed baking dish (since the pumpkin may leak or weep a bit), and bake for 45 minutes.
- Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a saute pan over medium heat. If the sausages are in their casings, remove the meat and discard the casings. Crumble the sausage meat into small chunks and cook until lightly browned. Remove the sausage from the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside to cool. Discard the drippings, or save for gravy or what have you.
- Also while the pumpkin bakes, cook the pasta in a large pot of salted boiling water until al dente. Drain through a colander and rinse with cool water to stop the cooking process.
- In a bowl, toss together the Fontina, Gruyère, sausage, pasta, scallions and herbs. Once the pumpkin is done baking, take it out of the oven and fill it with the macaroni and cheese. Pour the cream over the filling. Place the top back on the pumpkin and bake for 1 hour, taking the top off for the last 15 minutes so the cheese on top of the filling can properly brown. If the top cream still seems a bit too wobbly and liquid, give it another 10 minutes in the oven. The cream may bubble over a bit, which is fine. If the pumpkin splits while baking, as occasionally happens, be thankful you set it in a rimmed baking dish and continue to bake as normal.
- Allow the pumpkin to rest for 10 minutes before serving. Be careful moving the dish, as the pumpkin may be fragile. You can serve this dish two ways: Cut it into sections and serve them, or just scoop out the insides with scrapings of the pumpkin flesh for each serving. Either way is just dandy. Salt and pepper to taste.
Great recipe with a beautiful presentation. I think your photo is excellent too!
Thank you!!
Thank you so much for the high praise! I’m so glad your family enjoyed the recipe and the book! I’ve got to say, after seeing your photos I think I need to go and make this for myself again!
-Garrett
You and Stephanie must have had an amazing time creating all of these wonderful dishes!
We did! I’m almost afraid to think about how much cheese we consumed in a year. 😉
And thank you for this wonderful post. So glad your boy liked the dish. Little ones are a tough crowd!
Yum, this looks AMAZING! What a great idea. I’ve done pumpkin stuffed with bread and cheese, but the idea of stuffing it with mac and cheese is so cool! 🙂
This is such a beautiful presentation! A great recipe too. Definitely inspires me too try cooking Mac and cheese in different ways.
Wow! That is so cool – my kids would LOVE eating out of a pumpkin, too… who am I kidding… I would LOVE it, too -ha!
What a beautiful dish! Looks delicious.
AMAZING!! Just made this tonight. Really easy and tasted awesome! They guys really liked it. I used chicken sausage since I have a non-pork eater. Went well with the unoaked Viognier (I had a Hilmy Cellars wine).
Awesome!! I’m glad it worked out! 🙂
Hello! I am going to make this for my pot luck at work!! Do you feel like any of it could be done the night before? What a fantastic idea!!!
Hi Shannon — You could feasibly assemble and par-bake it ahead of time, but you really do want to finish baking just before serving. Maybe if your office has a full oven it would work? ~ Kathy
Hi Shannon — I got a little more insight/advice to share, from one of the book’s authors: “I cook the pasta the night before, then throw the entire prepared filling in a zip-lock in the fridge. I scrape out the pumpkin the night before, too. Then when I need to cook it, I salt the inside if the pumpkin, empty in the bag of filling, and bake. Voila! Ideally the chilled stuff can be set out for 30 minutes before cooking to come to room temp, but if that’s not possible, just cook an extra seven minutes.”
If I was wanting to quadruple this recipe for a Fall themed dinner, do you think it would still cook and turn out fine if I quad the ingredients and cook in a larger pumpkin? Thanks much.
Hi Brady — I checked with the authors of the book, and here’s their advice: “Thing you have to ensure is the pumpkin is thick enough so that it doesn’t split during cooking. It’s something that has never happened to me before or to anyone I know who has made this recipe, but more liquid means more internal pressure.” ~ Kathy
Do you think I could make it in individual pumpkins? Like the little ones, so everyone has one on their plate?
Maybe? I haven’t tried it. Little pumpkins are a lot harder to hollow out, I think. It certainly would look cute, just not sure how easy it would be to execute. ~Kathy
Excellent dish Kathy, thank you so much for sharing! I made a few very minor tweaks to the recipe as a result of what was available at the grocery store. I used 1/3 teaspoon of each of the herbs in dried form. The sugar pumpkins I found were smaller in the 2.5-3 pound range, I found I needed about 1.5/recipe as written as I quadrupled the recipe and used 5 of the smaller pumpkins. I also used cavatappi pasta instead of macaroni (which looks like you did as well in the picture). Also recommend lining your pan with heavy foil for easy cleanup. The result was amazing! Fortunately my pumpkins did not split, and the presentation was perfect. Very rich flavors which all came together deliciously. The pumpkin was nice and soft on the inside so you could get a little scrape of pumpkin with every bite, mmmmmm. And I’ve found that Italian sausage is an excellent meat with pumpkin. Huge hit with my friends!
I just made this omg so very good!!!
I made this for a Halloween potluck and it was a hit! I tripled the recipe to feed 12 people.
I did prep the day before by making the filling and scraping the pumpkins, as suggested in the comments. This helped a ton. I ended up using 2 pumpkins and one regular bowl to serve. I was afraid 3 pumpkins couldn’t cook in the oven at the same time. I baked 2 pumpkins w/ macaroni and 1 bread pan with macaroni at the same time (and with the suggested time & temp) and it worked out great. I’m sure it would’ve been fine to use 3 pumpkins too.
I feel the fresh herbs and sausage really added to this dish as well.
Thanks for sharing a memorable dish!