Talk about easy - just throw the pumpkin in the oven, whole, and once it's done roasting, then it slices open like butter - no more finagling with a knife, worry about losing a finger.

But then, what to do?

(While we're deciding, scoop out the pumpkin seeds to make Spicy Sweet Pumpkin Seeds.)

For awhile now, I've read/heard that "canned pumpkin is as good as fresh". Last year I roasted my first pumpkin -- what, you didn't know that? well, that's because the roasting process went fine but the flesh itself was so blah. And yes, I roasted a sugar pie pumpkin (and not a pumpkin for jack o'lanterns) which by all rights should be good.

This year, the roasting process again went fine and while I didn't do side-by-side comparisons, I can say that the flesh of this roasted pumpkin made a one delicious pumpkin pie (later, my friends, later!) and pretty light-orange pancakes until the last bit turned into a pumpkin smoothie. Unfortunately I didn't save enough for pumpkin bread pudding which my friend Ann served at our book club last week and ... yumm.

So I haven't decided yet whether canned pumpkin is better or not - just that last year I had no luck with roasted pumpkin and this year I'm more than pleased. (Please see the Updates, below.) What about you -- what's your experience?

KITCHEN NOTES
Straight from the oven, roasted pumpkin is more fibrous than the highly processed canned pumpkin. Be sure to put it through a food processor before using it for baking.
According to the great resource Vegetable Love by Barbara Kafka, a two-pound sugar pie pumpkin will yield 2 cups of pumpkin purée and that is slightly less than what mine produced.

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UPDATES
You know how you some times read that some pumpkins are watery and tasteless? Two out of the three 'good' baking/roasting pumpkins have turned out that way for me. After roasting, pureeing and draining, a smallish Sugar Pie Pumpkin (#3) yielded only 1 cup of (watery, tasteless) flesh but I was shocked to measure the liquid that emerged, well more than a cup. It needn't go to waste: just add it to a soup (as the liquid, not for flavor in a pumpkin soup.
In contrast, the large Hubbard squash shown behind the measuring cup yielded 6 cups of flesh and not a single tablespoon of liquid. THIS is what you want to use for dishes where real pumpkin flavor is called for.
How can you tell, before roasting? I don't know, yet, though will work on this idea. What I do recommend, however, is having a can of pumpkin puree in the pantry, just in case.

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PUMPKIN DAY My favorite fellow vegetable lover is a young chap named Freddie, who's seven years old and lives in England with his big sister Alex and his dad and his mum -- she's the one who's in charge of their blog, The Great Big Vegetable Adventure and who organized a little P is for Pumpkin Party for today. Check out the pumpkin risotto Freddie rated 9 out of 10 (though maybe anything with bacon ought to be handicapped? Freddie gives high marks to everything with bacon -- oh right, just like the rest of us!!) and Spiced Pumpkin, Bacon and Mussel Conchiglie (wait! more bacon!) from Book the Cook and Pumpkin Cheesecake Muffins from Hannah's Country Kitchen. (Update: I see that Figs Olives Wine also has Freddie's number! She's just posted Pumpkin Fennel Tian with Bacon & Black Olives -- note the bacon!)

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