I can’t even begin to tell you how good this is.  Like, crazy good.  It has all the right ingredients along with amazing, aromatic herbs that turn this stew into a comforting bowl of goodness.

You’ll wish you made more.

Italian sausage, potatoes and aromatic veggies swim in a full-bodied broth.  Hearty enough to serve to your family for dinner with a fresh green salad and crusty french bread

The best part?

It’s all served inside a piping hot, prepared pumpkin.  Incredibly cool, right?

While ladling the stew to serve, you can scrape the inside of the pumpkin and add bits of the softened pumpkin to your bowl.

Wanna make one?  Let’s do it:

Start with a 8-10 lb. pumpkin.  I found one for $.25 at my local supermarket.  Total score!  You could even use one you have still lying around from Halloween.  As long as you haven’t cut into it yet, it’s still good.

Remove all the seeds and membrane.  Get the kids involved, they love doing this stuff!  Put the lid back on and bake for about 30-40 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

Chop all your veggies for the mirepoix.  That’s  fancy speak for carrots, celery and onion.  Saute in a pan with about a tablespoon of butter until tender.  Add minced garlic at the end.

Brown the Italian Sausage.  Allow to rest and then slice into bite size pieces

Add the sauteed veggies, sausage and quartered new potatoes into a pot.  Add the chicken broth, wine and dijon.  Mince up your herbs and toss in.  Simmer for about 30 minutes until potatoes are fork tender.

While the stew is simmering, slice up the mushrooms and saute in about a tablespoon of butter until golden.

Make your beurre manie.  More fancy talk.  This time it means flour and butter!

After the potatoes are tender, add the cooked mushrooms and whisk in the beurre manie.   Pour into the pre-baked pumpkin and return the tureen to the oven for an additional 10 minutes at 375 degrees.

Total goodness…

BONUS:  The warmed tureen keeps your stew piping hot for hours!

It just looks like Fall in a bowl, right?  The colors, the aromas… I can’t get enough.

Make it this week.  You won’t be disappointed!

Ingredients

• 1 8-10 lb. pumpkin
• 1 lb. sweet italian sausage
• 4 T. butter, divided
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 2 celery ribs, chopped
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 12 small new potatoes, quartered
• 2 T. Dijon Mustard
• 4 C. Chicken broth
• 1/2 c. white wine
• 1 T. chopped rosemary, chopped
• 1 T. chopped thyme, chopped
• 2 T. flour
• 1 package crimini mushrooms, sliced (button is fine)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Cut the top off the pumpkin making a nice sized lid and scrape out all the seeds and membrane. Bake for about 30-40 minutes with the top on
3. Brown the sausage in a little olive oil. Allow to rest and slice into bite size pieces
4. Saute the onion, carrots and celery until browned. Add the minced garlic
5. Add the sausage, potatoes, cooked veggies, broth, wine and chopped herbs all to a heavy pot
6. Simmer for 30 minutes until potatoes are fork tender
7. Saute the mushrooms in 1.5 T butter
8. Make the beurre manie by melting 1.5 T of butter and whisk in 2 T flour
9. Add the mushrooms and beurre manie to the stew and stir to combine
10. Transfer the stew to the baked pumpkin tureen and bake for an additional 10 minutes at 375.