These children on the label look suspiciously happy.
Available at Central Market.
I'm slightly embarrassed to say I had never heard of Rick Bayless or his Frontera Restaurant Group until I saw him helping Andrew Zimmern navigate the amazing world of Mexican street food in Chicago. It was fortuitous that after watching a re-run of this episode of "Bizarre Foods: America" that I ran into the Chipotle Pumpkin Salsa created by Bayless for sale at Central Market.
Before discussing the many merits of this salsa, let's consider first the label "medium" as a indicator of spice level. It's become clear to me that label is entirely subjective and pretty much meaningless; what is "medium" to me, an Irish-American lassie not raised on hot food is far different than what is "medium" to, say, a native Thai woman used to eating dragon peppers for breakfast.
So, when I say this salsa toasted my tongue (though not in a bad way), do not assume it actually has that many scoville units to its name. Do know, however, that whatever heat produced by the roasted tomatillos enhances, not masks, the other layers of flavor, which include a wonderful earthy taste of slightly over-ripened squash, onions, roasted garlic, and just a hint of sweet from some cane juice.
Although Central Market's Pumpkin and Blue Corn tortilla chips were a bust, this salsa certainly is not. I suggest pairing it plain yellow corn chips or as a garnish for an omelet.
Spotted at Central Market, these tortilla are purportedly made with "pumpkin" and "blue corn." That may be true, but they taste only of corn and salt and nothing of squash. Even the round orange-colored ones. #pumpkinfail
Central Market is also vending pumpkin salsa, which I very much is not another shameful squash sham.
Apply to your pasta of choice.
Continuing on my evaluation of World Market's pumpkin products, I recently tested their pumpkin pasta sauce. Lovers of Italian cuisine know that choosing the right type of pasta to go with your sauce (or vice versa) is terribly important; Mario Batali has argued that pasta is just a vehicle for sauce and to some extent I agree with him.
Because I wanted my pumpkin sauce to adhere thoroughly to my pasta, I selected miniature rotelle, otherwise known as "wagon wheels," a highly textured circular noodle.
Al dente pasta meets sauce.
Success was evident as soon as I began to combine the thick sauce with the al dente rotelle, for when I extracted individual wheels they were evenly coated with sauce.
Then, in part for shits and giggles, but mostly because it was Saturday and I had time, I roasted a baby pumpkin to garner extra squash flesh and a handy serving dish for the my dinner.
Pumpkin in a pumpkin.