The following recipe is from ,The River Cafe Cook Book’ by Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers.

Ingredients

Serves 6

Pumpkin	1.5 kg	seeded and diced into 5cm cubes
Potatoes	150 g	peeled and diced
Red onions (small)	2	finely chopped
Garlic	2 cloves	cut into slivers
Chicken stock	1 litre
Fresh Majoram	4 large sprigs
Dried chilis	1-2	optional
Olive oil	3 tbsp
Butter	50 g
Parmesan to serve

Notes

This is a very thick soup.
Vegetable broth instead of chicken broth works as well.
The original recipe recommends serving with Crostini (Ciabatt bread + garlic + olive oil)
Variation according to original recipe (which I haven’t tried yet): add 150g cooked canelli beans when you add the pumpkin. Reserve some whole ones to add to the final puree.

Preparation

Heat oil and butter in a large, heavy saucepan and gently fry the onion until soft.
Stir in the garlic, majoram leaves, pumpkin and potatoe.
Season with chili (optional), salt and pepper.
Add enough stock to just covver the pumpkin.
Simmer until until the pumpkin is tender, about 20-25 minutes.
Option 1 (simpler and preferred):
- Mix entire soup using a hand blender.
Option 2 (original recipe):
- Strain about a third of the stock from the pumpkin and set aside
- Mix remainder in a food processor (very thick!)
- Return to saucepan and add back the stock you removed.
Serve with Parmesan and Crostini