Pumpkin Pie a la Marina Di Chioggia

[UPDATE: This pie was so fantastic! Amazing taste, and perfect texture].

The Marina Di Chioggia squash is a beautiful pumpkin. Check out its gorgeous writeup at rareseeds.com.
I grew it this year specifically for pumpkin pie. I typically grow Blue Hubbard squash, but I thought I’d try something different this year.

Marina Di Chioggia in the garden

I haven’t tasted the pie yet, but there are definitely two key differences between the Marina Di Chioggia and the Blue Hubbard:

1) You can cut the Marina Di Chioggia with a knife. You can’t really do that with the Blue Hubbard (allow me to demonstrate, here).

2) The flesh of the Marina Di Chioggia is dryer than that of the Blue Hubbard. That’s not to say the flesh of Blue Hubbard is too wet; it’s not.

I’m excited to try the pie tomorrow for American Thanksgiving. I made two of them just now, and I used the same recipe that I use for my Blue Hubbard pumpkin pie. See below for squash baking instructions, the pie recipe, and some photos of my farm to table baking

BAKE THE SQUASH

Cut the squash up into chunks (see photos), put them upside down in Pam-sprayed glass lasagna pans, cover them in foil, and bake them at 400 degrees for about an hour. You know they’re ready when you can easily stick your fork in a piece and mash it up. Oh yea, and take the seeds and gunk out and use them for tasty pumpkin seeds.

Cut-up squash pieces.

Face down in lasagna pans. Don’t forget the foil.

When they’re done, let them cool, then scrape out the flesh into a bowl (discard shells in compost).

MARINA DI CHIOGGIA PIE RECIPE

1-3/4 cups of Marina Di Chioggia squash puree (cooled, or room temp.)
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp cloves
2 eggs
1 can (12-ounce) evaporated milk
1 10″ pie crust*
* I use the pre-made roll-into-a-pan crust; you can make your own crust if you’d like.

Mix all dry ingredients (sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves) in a small bowl. Beat eggs in a large bowl. Stir in squash puree and dry mix. Gradually stir in evaporated milk. Pour pie filling mixture into shell.

Bake in 425 degree oven for 15 minutes.** Reduce temperature to 350 degrees; bake 40-50 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack 2 hours.
** I usually have to cover my crust edges at point, and for the rest of the baking time; otherwise, the crust burns.

Pureeing the baked squash.

Pie aside, I freeze a lot of pureed pumpkin, too (in freezer bags). I also figured out a way to getting squash puree in zip lock bags without it getting near the opening and making a mess. See green cup.

I use this trick for freezing pesto in zip locks, too.

Perfect zip locks of pumpkin.

Pie recipe ingredients (I made two pies).

I love these so much. And people tend to assume you made the crust because you form these yourself in the pan (sneaky sneaky).

Ingredient mixing (I don’t have photos of every step; it’s pretty self-explanatory).

Pouring the puree into the unbaked crusts.

Ta Da! Can’t wait to taste this tomorrow!