Pumpkin pie

Halloween is approaching - are you planning to organise a special surprise for your children, to have fun spending a day doing something a little out of the ordinary? Then you’ve probably already started to cut up your pumpkins and prepare the candles in order to create a lovely ambience for a day of partying. And if this year, apart from the lit up pumpkins, you were thinking about cooking something with this vegetable, how about a beautiful pumpkin pie from across the Atlantic? This US specialty is really delicious and quite irresistible, with the pumpkin providing a touch of rather unusual sweetness for a savoury dish, to the point that even your children - and maybe their friends - will devour the pie without even realizing that they're eating despised vegetables! Unleash your desire to cook and make something wonderful!

Prepare the shortcrust pastry by working the flour with a little salt and the chopped up butter. Gradually add the water and when the dough is compact make a ball and put it in the fridge for 20 minutes. Cut the pumpkin into pieces and boil in a little water until tender. Reduce to a puree in a blender. Transfer the mashed pumpkin to a saucepan and heat over low heat after adding the caster sugar. Add the cinnamon and ginger to the pumpkin mixture. Remove from heat and add the milk and cream. Add the eggs one at a time, whisking everything together until the mixture is smooth and slightly frothy. Roll out the pastry and line a round cake tin lined with baking parchment. Cover the pastry crust with tin foil and then prick the pasta and foil with a fork in several places. Bake in preheated oven at 200°C for 15 minutes, then remove the foil and bake for another 10 minutes. Remove the pastry shell from oven and fill it with the pumpkin mixture. Bake again and cook for 30 minutes. Remove the pie from the oven and let it cool for at least an hour. It should be firmer towards the edges and wobble slightly in the middle, which will firm up as it cools. Cut into slices and serve: it is excellent served with a dollop of whipped cream.