Pumpkin

Introduction

What vegetable better than pumpkin could embody the symbol of the Halloween party? The pumpkin, in addition to being the ideal expedient for creating monstrous shapes illuminated internally by lanterns, lends itself well to preparing exquisite dishes - typically autumn and winter - tasty, sweet and low-calorie, therefore also suitable for those who follow low-calorie diets.

Not only the pulp of the pumpkin is used: it is not uncommon, in fact, that even the seeds, after having been properly dried and salted, are also tasted as a simple snack.
A common vegetable in many different cultures, the pumpkin lends itself to being prepared in many ways, from cooking in the oven to that in a pan, from boiling to frying, from the preparation of tempting sauces for pasta (and rice), to that of sweets and cakes typical of the cold season.
Furthermore, the pumpkin is a medicinal bomb: for this reason, it is used both in herbal medicine and in cosmetics.

Pumpkin: general information

With the name "pumpkin" s "he means a variety of fruits belonging to the family of Cucurbitaceae: most of the time, the pumpkin proper is identified by the genus Curcubita, but some species belong to the genus Lagenaria, comprising, in general, pumpkins grown for mostly ornamental purposes, with a thick and very hard skin, and almost devoid of pulp. Curcubita pepo is the term indicating the popular courgettes (whose fruits of the homonymous plant are consumed immature), while the botanical binomial Curcubita maxima it refers to real pumpkins, pulpy, orange and sweet peponids, harvested when fully ripe.
Particular is Curcubita moschata (pumpkins violins) from the "pear" shape: swollen, tinged with green at the base, pointed and yellow-orange towards the apical part.
The pumpkin comes from Central America: its origins are very ancient and in the past it was a precious food source to feed many peoples.

Botanical aspects

The pumpkin is an annual, monoecious and herbaceous plant, with a climbing or scent stem, up to 7 meters long, covered with bristly hairs and rich in racemose tendrils. The leaves are rather large and pedunculated, heart-shaped and made up of 5 lobes.

The flowers also have large dimensions (diameter: 5-7 cm): the corolla is yellow and consists of 5 petals; the flowers are both male and female, and are found on the same plant. Clearly, the fruits are pumpkins: they are peponids of very variable size, with a smooth or wrinkled surface, variously colored green, gray, orange or yellow. The pulp of the pumpkin is bright orange, less often yellow: inside, the fruit contains numerous seeds, flat and oval in shape.
Pumpkins grow well in fresh, medium-textured soils enriched with organic matter, with a preferably acidic pH; however, these plants adapt to any type of soil. Pumpkins prefer warm temperate climates: they grow easily at a temperature between 18 and 24 ° C.

Pumpkin: variety

More specifically, all pumpkins can be classified into four large groups:

1. Cucurbita maxima
2. Cucurbita moschata
3. Cucurbita melanosperma: also called spaghetti squash for the consistency of its cooked pulp, comparable to angel hair. It is a particular plant, typical of East Asia, and native to Mexico.
4. Cucurbita pepo
5. Lagenaria: ornamental gourds, formerly also used as containers for water or wine.

According to an "other less" scientific classification ", the pumpkins are cataloged in:

1. 

   Zucchini squashes (Cucurbita pepo): they are plants with a typical bushy habit, of which immature fruits and male flowers still in bud are used. This category includes the "cocuzzelle of Naples", very productive plants, with elongated, dark green fruits, streaked with light green veins. long pumpkin of Italy, also a very productive variety, with a typically bushy habit, and the round pumpkin without shoot to force, capable of producing up to 30 green, rounded and tasty fruits.

2. Winter pumpkins (Cucurbita maxima And Cucurbita moschata):
   
   
   • The species maxima also includes the so-called "turban variety", much cultivated in the cent and in southern Italy for ornamental purposes, for its bright colors and for its irregular and lumpy shape. The turban pumpkin is widely used to make the famous Halloween pumpkins, due to the particularity given by the original hat . To remember also the gray pumpkin of Bologna, excellent for jams, and the sea ​​squash of Chioggia, huge, elliptical with green skin and orange pulp.
   • Among the pumpkins belonging to the species moschata, the pumpkin full of Naples, whose fruit is rather long, cylindrical, swollen at the ends: the pulp is sweet, yellow or orange, while the surface is yellow, sometimes tending to reddish.

Video Recipe - Low calorie pumpkin and apple pie: without butter and without eggs



Rustic Pumpkin Cake Without Butter and Without Eggs

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Other articles on "Pumpkin"

1. Pumpkin: properties and uses of the Pumpkin
2. Pumpkin in Herbalist: property of the Pumpkin
3. Pumpkin Seed Oil
4. Pumpkin seeds and prostate health

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