For 4 people: 1 ripe spaghetti squash of approx. 1.5 kg, 3 tablespoons olive oil, herb sea salt, ground pepper, grated Parmesan, 1 medium onion, finely chopped,; 1 clove garlic, finely chopped; 1 each green bell pepper and hot pepper, halved and diced; 6 large tomatoes, skinned and diced; 1 small pepper, finely chopped; fresh chopped garden herbs.
Spaghetti squash, poke plenty of holes with a fork, then cook in enough water to cover for 30-40 minutes. The skin will become leathery and crack. Remove from water and let cool for 30 minutes. Cut the pumpkin in half crosswise and remove the skin and seeds. Carefully loosen squash spaghetti from the inside out.
For the tomato sauce, saute onion, garlic, hot peppers, and bell pepper in olive oil. Add tomatoes and pepper. Cover and simmer sauce for about 20 minutes. Add garden herbs and season to taste. Heat the pumpkin spaghetti in the hot olive oil, reheat if necessary. Season. Arrange pumpkin spaghetti, pour tomato sauce over and sprinkle with parmesan.
Plant spaghetti or nutmeg squash
<.x>N</x>The trained draftsman Steffen Heckelmann studies architecture at the FH Wiesbaden and grows pumpkins on the side. He is, after all, predestined for it. "It started with the fact that his grandparents always had pumpkins", says the versatile Heckelmann. Grandma and Grandpa came from the east of Germany, where pumpkin cultivation traditionally plays a major role. Mostly to boil down the pulp of the large berry fruits, because pumpkins count as such, sweet and sour.
There is a distinction between edible and ornamental pumpkins, summer and winter pumpkins. The garden squash, on the other hand, was named medicinal plant of the year in 2005, which will surprise many, because the seeds help with enlarged prostate. For pumpkins not only look attractive and have much to offer the eye, they are also of great health benefit. By the way, cucumbers and melons are also cucurbits.
Then there's the spaghetti squash. "When cooking, the skin bursts open", Heckelmann describes the procedure, "but that's not bad, it's desirable". The stringy flesh, reminiscent of spaghetti, is removed from the burst fruit; it has a light vegetable taste reminiscent of fresh nuts. It goes well with a flavorful, neatly spicy sauce.
"But the most aromatic is the muscat squash", the expert proclaims. These large, quite heat-requiring pumpkins are quite rare in our country. The next neighbour on the ranking list of good taste is taken by the butternut squash.
"This can be used for almost all dishes, looks attractive with its orange flesh and has only a small core", Heckelmann describes its advantages.
Sometimes the flesh is difficult to remove from the peel, but Heckelmann knows the answer: "For a soup, it is best to take a pumpkin that you can cook with the skin. There the Hokkaido pumpkin offers itself, the skin has a high portion of Betakarotin and gives the soup a beautiful color."
On pesticides Heckelmann can do without, "because the pumpkin in our area hardly spreads and the pest pressure is accordingly low ". In contrast, mildew is even desirable, "then the leaves die and the pumpkins ripen better".
Whoever wants to enjoy Heckelmann's great variety of pumpkins - he can come up with almost 200 varieties! -, goes to Hünfelden-Nauheim in September to the "Nauheimer Kürbiswelten". However, in order to have a chance of winning one of the top places in the giant pumpkin competition, you need a berry weighing a good 300 kilograms. Last year the record pumpkin weighed 336 kilograms with a circumference of 3.50 metres. You can even use it, as Heckelmann does, as a "vegetable boat".
Goldground Pumpkin Crops
<x>.N</x>Steffen Heckelmann
Neustr. 1
65597 Hünfelden-Nauheim (near Bad Camberg/Taunus)
Phone: 0178-7872911
Fax: 06438-920861
Email: info@goldgrund.de
Internet: www.goldgrund.de
Opening hours: In pumpkin season: open weekdays 4pm to 6pm; also weekly market in Limburg
from Waldemar Thomas