Halloween Pumpkins

Our answer

Nigella's Pumpkin And Goat's Cheese Lasagne from NIGELLA CHRISTMAS) is a vegetarian lasagne,with a filling of cooked pumpkin, tomato sauce and tangy goat's cheese. Nigella mentions to use an eating pumpkin and not a Halloween-type pumpkin.

At Halloween many supermarkets now sell very large pumpkins for carving and they are usually labelled as "carving" or "Halloween" pumpkins. These large specimens tend to have pale orange flesh that is quite watery and flavourless, so, although edible, it is not that nice to eat. For the lasagne we would suggest using a smaller pumpkin with darker, denser flesh. These may be labelled as "edible" or "cooking" pumpkins or look for types such as kuri, onion, potimarron, turban or cheese pumpkin. You could also used the yellow-fleshed acorn pumpkin or butternut squash would be a good alternative.