Pumpkin

Pumpkin is a round winter squash with thick orange skin and dense, bright-orange flesh. Its flavor is mild with gentle earthy sweetness, and the flesh turns silky when roasted or pureed. Cooks roast cubes, simmer soups and curries, and bake pies; it is sold whole or peeled and cubed, and often as canned puree.

Domesticated in Mesoamerica from Cucurbita species, pumpkin spread across the Americas and later worldwide through trade. It features in North American, Latin American, Mediterranean, and South Asian cuisines, and is grown as a mature hard-skinned squash harvested in fall then cured for storage.