A Great Fall Soup!

 Pumpkin, Sausage, and Arborio Rice!

I've worked hard in my garden all summer. I'm still learning and felt like I got very little for all the work I did. On the other hand, we were surprised to find two huge pumpkin vines growing on their own! For no work at all, I ended up with a bumper crop of pumpkins. Even leaving some for the sheep, I spent entire days processing pumpkins and still have six left to go. So...I set out to find recipes that use pumpkin. I was surprised at the wealth of recipes I found -- pies, bread, cake, muffins, casseroles, gnocchi, roasted pumpkin seeds, lasagna, soup, and even cocktails! 

This and the pumpkin gnocchi are our favorite so far!

INGREDIENTS:

2 tablespoons EVOO, plus more for drizzling 

A few fresh sage leaves, torn

1 pound bulk Italian sweet sausage with fennel Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper 

3 to 4 cloves garlic, chopped 

Freshly grated nutmeg

1 onion, chopped 

1 large bay leaf

1 butternut squash or small pumpkin (2 pounds), peeled and cut into 3/4-inch dice

6 cups chicken stock 

2 cups half-and-half

1 small bunch Tuscan kale, stemmed and chopped 

3/4 cup Arborio rice

Shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano, for serving

DIRECTIONS:

1. Heat the olive oil in a soup pot on medium high. Add the sausage, crumbling with a wooden spoon as it cooks, until brown.

2. Add garlic & onions, cook about 5 minutes until soft.

3. Add bay leaf, squash, salt, pepper, & nutmeg. Stir in the stock & half and half and bring to a boil.

4. Reduce heat to medium, stir in kale and simmer about 20 minutes until the squash is tender.

5. Add the rice and simmer 18-20 minutes until tender, stirring frequently.

6. Ladle into bowls and add Parmigiano-Reggiano and a bit of olive oil drizzled on top.

MY CHANGES:

• I probably used more pumpkin than they recommend.
• I forgot I was out of half-and-half so I used milk. It was absolutely delicious with the milk but I do think it would have been even better with half-and-half.
• I completely forgot to drizzle olive oil on the top at the end. I definitely will next time.
• I used more rice than the recipe called for, because it seemed very thin. However, it thickened up quite a bit with further simmering, so it ended up almost like a casserole. I'd probably try it with less rice but also will make it again with the whole bag.
• I didn't have Italian sausage, so I used regular pork sausage and added fennel fronds that I had previously dried and some traditional Italian seasonings.
• Because our pepper plants are growing like crazy, I sauteed some mild and spicy banana peppers, a bell pepper, and a little bit of cayenne pepper with the onion.

We served our soup with red wine and a side of yams and onions from our garden. One of the best meals we've had in years!

If you give this a try, let me know how you like it!