Wondering what to do with the leftovers now you’ve carved your jack o’lantern? Or just tempted by the seasonal glut of pumpkins? Here’s how to make everything from pie to pasta to waffles to muffins
At this time of year we are invariably confronted with two contradictory bits of culinary wisdom. First we are told that 12.76m pumpkins will be purchased, carved up and binned over Halloween, a shocking waste that could be ameliorated if we could make something delicious from our jack o’lanterns. But the first rule of pumpkin cookery has always been: don’t use pumpkins sold for carving.
It’s not quite that simple. You can use most supermarket pumpkins in most recipes – they are suitable, if not ideal. They are bred to have thin walls for easy carving and the flesh tends to be pale and watery. I once made a pie from a pumpkin with a sticker on it that said was edible, and I could make no higher claims for the result.
