The first thing you notice at a farmers market like Borough Market during autumn is the colours, which echo the season’s leaves on the ground and tell us we’re entering the time for warming, comforting and completely delicious cooking.
Enter: pumpkins, squashes, mushrooms, game birds such as red grouse, wood pigeon or duck, perhaps some partridges and pheasants, early season pork, and an abundance of apples, pears and figs. You’ll want to take more than one bag with you…
Once you’ve stocked up on seasonal delights, it’s time to head to the kitchen – these recipes from Ed Smith, Angela Clutton and Hayden Groves are the perfect way to welcome autumn into your repetoire.
Serves: 4 as a starter, 6 as a side
Prep time: 5 mins | Cook time: 35-40 mins
Delica pumpkin is a squat, green-grey pumpkin. Beneath the skin is a dense and vivid orange flesh, which is intensely sweet, buttery, and reminiscent of cooked chestnuts. Some people (well, me) consider it the most prized of the winter squash, and it’s particularly good when roasted with sage, sprinkled with its own roast seeds and slicked with a sheep’s or goat’s curd. It’s an excellent starter in its own right, though it also makes a mighty side dish for a feast or buffet.
Ingredients:
1–1.2kg delica pumpkin (or other winter squash or pumpkin)
6 tbsp cold-pressed rapeseed oil
2-3 tsp aleppo chilli pepper flakes (pul biber)
20-24 sage leaves
150g sheep’s or goat’s curd (or Greek-style yoghurt)
Method:
Preheat the oven to 220C. Clean the squash or pumpkin with a damp cloth to remove any dirt, then cut it in half from top to bottom with a large, sharp knife. Scoop out the seeds with a spoon and spread them out on a small baking tray.
Drizzle 1 tbsp rapeseed oil on top and mix with a fork, pulling away and discarding any fibres as you do so. Roast in the oven for 10-20 mins, until golden and crisp. Remove from the oven, season generously with flaky sea salt and 1 tsp Aleppo pepper and set aside.
Cut the squash halves into 3-4cm-thick wedges, leaving the skin on. Place in a bowl with 4 tbsp rapeseed oil and mix until glossy, then spread over a large baking tray or low-sided roasting tin, ideally in a single layer. Roast near the top of the oven for 20 mins.
Mix the sage leaves with the 1 tbsp rapeseed oil, then once the squash has been cooking for 20 mins, carefully flip the slices and scatter the sage under and around them. Roast for a further 10-15 mins, or until the squash is tender and browning at the edges, and the sage leaves are crisp.
Pile the squash pieces onto a platter or individual plates. Dot the curd on and in between, add the crisp sage and sprinkle with the roasted seeds, remaining aleppo pepper, and a final glug of rapeseed or extra virgin olive oil.
Recipe: Ed Smith
A celebration of Britain’s wild autumn bounty
