This is a simple yet satisfying recipe to celebrate the season. You can use a store-bought dough (use an all-butter one), but this crust is really easy to put together, plus you can double or triple the recipe and freeze the dough to use later. I have used fresh currants on top. The acidity cuts beautifully through the fattiness of the bacon and cheese and the sweetness of the pumpkin. But you can also use fresh or dried cranberries, or any other red seasonal berry of your choice. Choose a semi-strong cheese that creates a contrast in flavor with the pumpkin; a semi aged sheep or goat cheese, a strong cheddar, or even a mild blue cheese works beautifully. Pair with Coldigrotta IGP Venezia Giulia Rosso.
Makes one pie
Ingredients
For the crust:
1⁄2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
About 4 tbsp ice water
2 1⁄3 cup all-purpose flour
1⁄2 tsp salt
1⁄2 tsp baking soda
1⁄2 cup plus 1 tbsp very cold butter, cut into cubes
For the filling:
1 lb pumpkin (delica or kabocha), cut into wedges, peeled, no seeds
6 – 8 thin slices of bacon
1⁄2 lb semi-hard cheese (sea headnote)
A handful of fresh or dry red currants or cranberries
2 tbsp olive oil
1 egg
Directions
Add apple cider vinegar to the water and in a cup, and set aside in the fridge. Mix flour, salt and baking soda in medium bowl. Add the cubes of butter and working quickly, toss them to coat with the flour, pressing the cubes between your fingers, making sheets of butter covered with flour. If it’s warm and you feel the butter melting, place the bowl in the fridge for 5 minutes and then resume.
Gently add the icy water mix to the flour mixture to help the dough come together. Add a small amount at a time, until you can get a piece of dough in your hand and squeeze it.
Bring everything together. Shape the dough into a disk and wrap in cling film. Refrigerate the dough for at least two hours, or overnight.
Dust a working surface with flour and roll out the dough into a disk. It should be about 1⁄2 inch (or a bit less) thick. With the help of a rolling pin, move the crust to baking sheet, on the tray that would bake it on, and put it in the fridge while you prepare the filling.
Preheat the oven at 400°F. Heat the oil in a non-stick pan over medium heat and caramelize the wedges of the of pumpkin for a few minutes. We don’t want to cook or fry them, just give them a slightly dark surface that will bring out the natural sugars.
Slice the cheese thinly. Remove the tray of the crust from the fridge and put the slices of cheese on the dough, leaving about an inch from the edge empty. Tear half of the slices of bacon and place on the dough (where there is no or little cheese). Arrange the wedges of the pumpkin on top. Place the rest of the bacon getly on top of the pumpkin and add the currants/cranberries on top at the end.
Fold the dough around the filling to form a galette and brush it with the beaten egg. Bake for 25 – 35 minutes, or until the crust is golden and the bacon is melted and crunchy.
Rest for 10 minutes before serving for brunch, or dinner.
