Thanksgiving baked pumpkin with sausage farotto

Whole organic eating pumpkin, the largest u can find and fit in your oven

Cut a top in the pumpkin, but not like a jack o’ lantern top trap door

Cut the top low enough so that it sits almost completely on the sides

Scrape out the seeds

Wipe the outside of the pumpkin and the top and a baking tray with olive oil

Set the oven at 350

Meanwhile

Saute hot Italian or organic turkey sausage until it is browned, but in bite sized pieces, one per serving

Then, on stove top, saute a large chopped red onion, 2 chopped carrots, 2 stalks celery in olive oil until it is translucent, soft, about 20 min

Then add a can of chestnuts and a handful of sage leaves, both roughly chopped, cook for 5 min, stirring

Then add 1/3 cu farro per person, stirring for a few minutes

Then add warmed vegetable broth as you would in a risotto, gradually, as it absorbs (see my brodo recipe on this website, attached or purchase off the shelf, but boxed broth is not the same and this is a festive day dish)

Do not cook farro entirely, about 2/3 of the way

Farro should still be firm in center and should still be sitting in a bit of liquid

Also now add 1 cu vermouth and stir

Farotto should be still slightly soupy, so add broth if needed

Add salt pepper

Bake pumpkin at 350 for about 30 min

The size of the pumpkin will alter cooking time

Check on it and drain the water that trhe pumpkin sweats and check for tenderness

After 20 minutes,  add the farotto into the pumpkin and cover with lid

Check to see if flesh in pumpkin is cooked and scrapable from sides

If not, add a bit more time

If so, take pumpkin out of oven, remove top, start scraping carefully the pumpkin flesh from the sides of the pumpkin in bite-size spoonfuls, allowing it to fall in the farotto, careful not to tear through the sides

Also move the farro in the pumpkin to one side, then the other, carefully scraping some more of the cooked flesh

Add fresh grated parmesan, ¼ cup per person and more warm broth if needed

Stir the farotto carefully in the pumpkin and serve on a platter