We're gonna make a Pumpkin Spice soup
and we're gonna make a Muffaletta-Style
grilled cheese sandwich.
I roasted this, which is twice what you need.
You need about four pounds of pumpkin,
so one sugar pumpkin.
Or half of a huge pumpkin like this.
I roast this
at 425/450, high oven, high oven.
One rack above center.
Depending on how large the pumpkin is,
uh, you know, that's gonna vary
the roasting time.
What you look for
is for the shell
to be golden like this
and when you give it a little push,
it dents.
For every two pounds
I use about 1/8 of a teaspoon of allspice.
And about 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg,
and 1 teaspoon of pimenton.
And then we're gonna scoop that
right into our hot, strained stock
that tastes like bay,
garlic
and ginger.
Then we're gonna take all this
beautiful flavor from the roasting
of the pumpkin,
and just literally drain that into the pot.
So, now we're going to puree this.
Put it back on the stove
to thicken it up as we like.
I took the seeds from the pumpkin,
I washed them of course.
I added a touch of the oil spray,
the non-aerosol oil spray
and I just toasted them in a pan,
or can throw them into a warm oven.
Hot oven, I should say.
Moderate oven.
And I toast them until they're
super, super crunchy,
deeply golden and fragrant.
And I season these guys with just salt and pepper.
So, when the soup is done,
I add about, as I said,
this is an option.
I add about 3/4 of a cup of cream fraiche
or sour cream.
Or heavy cream,
to really make that
pumpkin soup
rich.
So, we need to start with a little bit
of garlic butter and olive oil.
Half and half, oil and butter.
And whenever I make grilled cheese or
patty melts of any kind
I lightly brush
the bread,
rather than throw the fat in the pan,
so that we're
clear that we have even distribution.
And then of course,
we want our buttered
sides to face out.
So, we'll put that side down
on our work surface.
And then we're going to take literally,
from Central Grocery, order this online,
Olive Salad.
The reason people stand in line
for such a long time to get muffaletta
at Central Grocery,
is especially delicious because it
isn't just little bits of olive
and olive oil.
If you do not have this in your
fridge or pantry,
take Italian good quality,
pitted olives
uh, green
and take a jar of Giardiniera in brine.
Drain this,
combine these,
and pulse them in your food processor
and you'll end up with something
that tastes a whole lot like this.
Then I'm gonna pile in some roasted peppers,
'cause I like them.
And then I'm gonna add the provolone
or deli sliced mutz
or a combination of the two.
And then any combination
of Italian meats that you like,
this is John's favorite combo here,
I loves mortadella,
sweet ham or prosciutto cotto.
Cooked ham is basically all that means.
Capicola
and salami of any variety.
This is a milano,
normally I have genoa in the drawer.
I ordered genoa, but I got milano,
so that's fine.
And then of course,
more cheese, it is a grilled cheese.
Now, you can just put
this in a panini press
and blow off the entire
garlic, buttery thing.
If you're gonna cook it in a pan,
I prefer having that there.
The soup looks pretty good!
And then we're gonna top that
with a few of our toasted pumpkin seeds.
I use this to literally press
the grilled cheeses down.
And these are our Muffaletta grilled cheese.
And there's what it looks like on the inside,
steaming hot.
Is that not gorgeous?
Please!