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As 2025 closes, I wanted to leave you with one of my favourite recipes: the pumpkin fondue. This started life as a Lyonnaise dish that I saw Anthony Bourdain enjoy on his TV series Parts Unknown at Daniel Boulud’s parents’ farmhouse. My adapted version could be a centrepiece of your New Year’s Eve party, where the molten cheese mixture can be spread on bruschetta and topped with pickles. Equally, however, it could be a main meal shared with friends alongside a salad, pickles and bread. Either way, it’s built for comfort and for joy. Happy New Year to you.
Pumpkin fondue
I used a 3kg kabocha squash, but if you can’t find one that big, get two medium-sized pumpkins instead.
Prep 15 min
Cook 2 hr 15 min
Serves 6-8 for dinner, or 20 as canapes
3kg pumpkin (1 big or 2 smaller ones) – crown prince, delica or kobocha; it’s not about the overall weight, but the size of the pumpkin and the cavity
7 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
Fine sea salt
1 tsp mixed spice
1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
80g cooked chestnuts, chopped
12 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves picked to get 1 tbsp
500g mushrooms – the most exotic you can find – shredded or chopped small
Black pepper
50g unsalted butter
50g plain white flour
500ml whole milk
100g gruyere (make sure it’s a vegetarian one), roughly chopped
75g emmental (a vegetarian one), grated
50g stilton (a vegetarian one), or other vegetarian blue cheese, roughly chopped
To serve
Toasted baguette
Baby cornichons
Salad leaves
Heat the oven to 200C (180C fan)/390F/gas 6. Using a small, serrated knife, cut a roughly 15cm-wide lid off the top of the pumpkin, then scoop out the seeds. Cut out (and reserve) a little extra flesh from the cavity to open up the hole a bit, then rub in a tablespoon of oil, a quarter-teaspoon of salt and a half-teaspoon of mixed spice.
Heat three tablespoons of oil in a large saute pan, then add the chopped onion and the reserved pumpkin flesh left over from making the lid. Cook for six or seven minutes, until soft, then add the garlic, chestnuts, thyme and remaining half-teaspoon of mixed spice, and cook for two minutes. Scrape into a large bowl.
Heat three more tablespoons of oil in the same pan, then add the mushrooms, half a teaspoon of salt and six grinds of pepper. Turn up the heat, cook for 15 minutes, until there is no liquid left in the bottom of the pan, then transfer the mushrooms to the onion bowl.
In a medium saucepan, melt the butter on a medium heat and, when it’s frothy, add the flour and a quarter-teaspoon of salt, and whisk for a couple of minutes, until smooth. Slowly whisk in the milk, beating constantly, until the sauce thickens, then take off the heat.
Fold all the cheese bar 25g grated emmental into the mushroom bowl. Spoon the mix into the cavity of the pumpkin until it’s nearly full, then slowly pour in as much of the bechamel as you can. Pop the lid back on the top of the pumpkin, wrap the whole thing in foil and bake for an hour to an hour and 15 minutes, until a sharp knife passes easily through the pumpkin skin. Unwrap the foil just at the top, lift off and discard the lid and scatter the reserved 25g grated emmental on top of the filling inside. Bake for another 10 minutes, until the cheese is bubbling and bronzed.
Take the pumpkin out of the oven, carefully peel off the foil and serve from the tin or transfer to a platter. To eat as a canape, spread some bechamel on a slice of baguette and top with a cornichon (save the leftover pumpkin flesh for another use); for a main meal, scoop the flesh and bechamel on to plates and serve with bread, cornichons and salad leaves.
