Autumn’s orange and purple plenty fills pies, tops tarts and sings roasted to go in main dishes
The market stalls are a tapestry of ochre and dark green. There are fat pumpkins and bunches of cavolo nero; early parsnips and chard entwined with late peaches and blackberries. There are apples for a pie, the first local pears (conference, as crisp as a sheet ice) hazelnuts and the first chestnuts. Food shopping doesn’t get better than this.
The first pumpkins are startling, their presence a sudden reminder that the year is waning. I might buy one or two for the house – simply for the beauty of their curves and dimples, but as far as cooking goes, they can wait a week or two. They will have much work to do this winter – and, instead, I bring home a shiny-skinned and user-friendly butternut. Destined to end its days as a tart filling with onions and pine nuts, the butternut weighs less in the bag than the fat turban pumpkins. I will steam the flesh and tuck it into the filling of pie. This is the first of the vegetable pies and tarts that I look forward to so much as the evenings darken.
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