Autumn fondue

This one is based on an idea from the wonderful cheese shop near our house, Venissimo, which mentioned in a recent newsletter that cheese fondue can be cooked up inside a pumpkin or other squash. It sounded so good that we had to give it a try. As it turns out, the pumpkin releases a lot of juice as it cooks, so while we used our normal fondue recipe for the dinner in the photo above, I modified it a little in the recipe below to reduce the wine and make it thicker.

Autumn Fondue
1 sugar pumpkin, about 7 inches in diameter
2 cups Emmental cheese, shredded
2 cups Gruyere cheese, shredded
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon of dry white wine or sherry
3 tablespoons kirschwasser
pinch of salt
pinch of freshly ground pepper
approximately 2 tablespoons olive oil

- Preheat oven to 350 F.
- Wash pumpkin and cut a hole in the top, jack-o-lantern-style. Do not discard top. Clean out the pumpkin inside to remove seeds and stringy parts.
- Rub olive oil all over the outside of the pumpkin.
- Toss cheeses in cornstarch until coated evenly (this is easiest in a plastic bag).
- Put all ingredients inside pumpkin. Replace lid on pumpkin.
- Put pumpkin on a cookie sheet and bake in oven for about 1 hour, until cheese is melted and pumpkin is tender. Stir the fondue until it is smooth (this may take a few minutes).
- Serve with bread, apples, cooked potatoes, or your favorite fondue dippers.