Pumpkin Pie

One day years ago I was at a farm stand in Concord, Massachusetts, hefting a small pumpkin. I said, "This one feels about the right size for a pie," and a woman standing nearby asked, "Are you really going to make a pie from it?" The only other car in the parking lot was an expensive-looking one with New York license plates. I have always imagined her going back to West 89th Street and telling her friends, who all think that pumpkin pies sort of grow on the shelves at Gristede's, "...and we met this real New England guy who still makes pumpkin pies out of pumpkins!"

• One pie pumpkin, about 1 pound; or a one-pie size can of pureed pumpkin
• 1/2 C dark brown sugar
• 1 T molasses
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 C milk
• 1 t ground cinnamon
• 1/2 t ground nutmeg
• 1/4 t ground ginger
• 1/4 t ground cloves
• 1/4 t salt
• unbaked pie shell

Start here if you're working with a fresh pumpkin; skip the first few paragraphs if you're starting with canned pumpkin puree.

Cut the stem out of the pumpkin. Cut the pumpkin in half.

Assuming you want to roast the pumpkin seeds, preheat oven to 325 degrees. Reach in to the pumpkin and pull the seeds off the pulp into a bowl of cold water.

After years of making pumpkin pies and jack-o-lanterns and separating seeds from pulp, I have learned that the pulp is not just amorphous glop. Each seed is connected to the central column of the fruit by a fiber (the pollen tube?). If you pull the seeds outwards from the central column the fibers and the softer material will stay behind and the seeds will be easy to wash off. Although your hands will get gooey, you'll end up with better roasted pumpkin seeds. It's worth it.

Wash the seeds well. Drain them for a few minutes in a strainer or colander and put them in a shallow pan. Sprinkle with salt and put in the oven. Stir them around every 15 minutes or so (if you forget them for an hour it will probably be OK) and continue roasting them until they are dry and lightly browned.

Scoop the pulp (and seeds, if you're not roasting them) out of the pumpkin and scrape the inside with a soup spoon to get down to the real pumpkin meat. I have used three methods to cook the pumpkin: boiling in a regular pot, microwaving, and instant pot.

Boiling in a regular pot takes a long time and leaves the pumpkin very watery, but is simple. Drain the cooked pumpkin in a strainer before pureeing it.

Microwaving takes a lot of attention, but is quicker then boiling in a regular pot. To microwave, cook one half the pumpkin, then the other, then the first, then the other, for a minute each time. After a couple of cycles, cut each half in half and reverse the cut sides to cook as evenly as possible, or stack one half on top of the other with meat sides together; continue to do half the pumpkin at a time until the pumpkin is soft enough to put through a Foley mill (by this time it will be too hot to hold; if you have silicone potholders, use them). No draining is needed.

If you have an instant pot, cook the pumpkin halves at high pressure for 20 minutes with half a cup of water. Let cool for 10 minutes before releasing pressure; if you release pressure too soon you may get cooked pumpkin clogging the release valve. After trying all three methods, I like this the best.

Puree the pumpkin in a Foley mill, ricer, food processor, or blender, or mash with a potato masher. Unless you microwaved, put the puree in a strainer and let excess water drip out of it for 5 or 10 minutes.

Continue here whether you started from a pumpkin or opened a can.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Add the spices and salt to the brown sugar and mix well. Mixing the spices in at this point is the best way to get them evenly distributed in the pie.

Add the molasses to 1 3/4 C of pumpkin puree and mix well. Add the sugar and spice mixture. Beat the eggs a little more and add to the other ingredients. Add the milk. Mix it all well. Pour into the pie shell. Bake 20 minutes at 425 degrees, then lower temperature to 375 degrees and bake another 45 minutes. The pie is done when it's pretty much set but still jiggles a little in the middle; it doesn't have to be really firm. It will get firmer as it cools.

If you started with 1 3/4 cups of pumpkin puree, the quantities of egg and milk given above will be just about right for one pie. If you have leftover pumpkin puree, mix spices, egg, and milk with it and use it in a batch of pancakes the next morning.