This is a slightly edited version of a recipe redaction I created for the 2025 Ealdormere Cooks’ Calendar. I chose the month of October, and here in Canada, that mneans Thanksgiving, and Thanksgiving means pumpkin pie. Fortunately, Bartolomeo Scappi gives us the perfect recipe for the season.
To prepare a tourte of domestic pumpkin without a shell
When the pumpkin is scraped, cook it in a good meat broth or else in salted water and butter. Then put it into a strainer and squeeze the broth out of it. Grind it in a mortar along with, for every two pounds of it, a pound of fresh ricotta and a pound of creamy cheese that is not too salted. When everything is ground up, put it through a colander, adding in ten well beaten eggs, a pound of ground sugar, an ounce of ground cinnamon, a pound of milk, four ounces of fresh butter and a half ounce of ginger. Have a tourte pan ready with six ounces of very hot butter in it and put the filling into it. Bake it in an oven or braise it, giving it a glazing with sugar and cinnamon. Serve it hot.
Source Scully, T. (2008) The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi (1570): L’arte et prudenza d’un maestro cuoco (The Art and Craft of a Master Cook). Toronto, ON, Canada: University of Toronto Press.
Some notes on the translation
- It’s not absolutely clear what kind squash or pumpkin Scappi is talking about. He uses the word cocuzza, which can mean specifically the bottle gourd, Lagenaria sicario or squashes and pumpkins in general. In the interest of ease of use, I used half of a large can of ED Smith pumpkin puree.
- Regarding cheese, Scully’s translation says “creamy cheese” which has led some redactors to use cream cheese, but Scappi actually uses the word grasso, ie fat or rich. I used havarti, as an easily available mild and rich cheese.
- The 16th century had sugars of various degrees of refinement, but outside of confectionery, recipes rarely specify what kind should be used. I used half white, and half brown cane sugar.
- Most of what is labelled cinnamon in both Canada and New Zealand is actually a related spice, cassia. It’s perfectly OK to use cassia in this recipe, but if you want the real thing, look for Ceylon cinnamon.
My Recipe
- 400ml pumpkin puree
- 200g ricotta
- 200g mild, semi-soft high fat cheese, finely grated
- 200ml milk
- 200g/1c sugar (brown, white, or a mixture)
- 4 large eggs, beaten
- 2 tbsp Ceylon cinnamon
- 1 tbsp ground ginger
- 60g butter, melted
- additional 90g butter, melted
- additional 2 tbsp of sugar and sprinkle of cinnamon
Preheat the oven to 190C (375F).
Combine the pumpkin, cheese, and ricotta. Push the mixture through a sieve, or whizz it in a food processor, or smoosh it with your immersion blender, or, if you feel it’s smooth enough, just mix thoroughly.
Stir in the eggs, milk, spices, and the first measure of melted butter.
Mix the 2tbsp of sugar with a 2tbsp of water and set aside for glazing.
Divide the second measure of melted butter between two 23cm (9”) pie pans, swirling it around to coat the sides.
Pour the pumpkin mix into the pans and bake ‘til nearly done (about 45 minutes). They should be set, but still a bit jiggly in the middle.
Carefully spoon or brush the glaze over the pies, sprinkle with a little cinnamon, and return them to the oven for 2-3 minutes to set the glaze. You can also glaze by just sprinkiling the pie with sugar and spritzing it with enough water to wet everything a little.
Serves 12-16. Good hot or cold. You can also spoon the filling into tartlet shells and bake about 20 minutes.