Personal Life

Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

Have you ever seen that “The Cosby Show” episode when Claire participates in a pumpkin exhibition and, returned home, Cliff takes the pumpkin to the garden to “kill” it?
A couple of days ago we “killed” a pumpkin, an enormous pumpkin!
With the pumpkin you can do a myriad of things: desserts, soups, dumplings (gnocchi), Halloween lanterns …
Waiting to cook it, we have frozen it and we had lots of seeds to use.
I’ve read on the net that pumpkin seeds have many good properties (antioxidant and antiparasitic) and active ingredients (selenium, vitamin E and F), so I decided to toast them and eat them.
The biggest problem was finding the exact cooking method, because if you do a search for a recipe on the internet, you won’t find a recipe but a dozen different versions of the same recipe! Someone pickled pumpkin seeds, other boil them in salt water, someone else cooks them with salt and oil, other make them sweet and the list goes on.
I prepared toasted pumpkin seeds as fast and easy as possible and I haven’t regretted it.
I washed the seeds in cold water and I removed all the pumpkin residue and yellow wires, still wet, I laid them in a pan and I sprinkled them with salt.
I preheated the oven to 150 ° C in ventilated mode and, when the oven was hot enough, I placed the pan on the bottom of the oven and let the seeds cook for 20 minutes. Voila!
They are very good and vaguely remember the taste of popcorn.
The only flaw is that they end too soon.
Have you ever tried toasted pumpkin seeds? How do you prepare them?
Let me know!




Avete mai visto quella puntata dei Robinson in cui Claire partecipa alla mostra delle zucche e, tornati a casa, Cliff porta in giardino la zucca per “ucciderla”?
Un paio di giorni fa abbiamo “ucciso” anche noi una zucca, una zucca enorme!
Con la zucca si possono fare una miriade di cose: dolci, zuppe, gnocchi, lanterne per halloween…
Aspettando di cucinarla, l’abbiamo congelata e sono rimasti tantissimi semi da usare.
Ho letto in rete che i semi di zucca hanno molte proprietà (antiossidante e antiparassitario) e principi attivi (Selenio, vitamina E ed F), così ho deciso di tostarle e mangiarle.
Il problema più grande è stato trovare la modalità esatta di cottura, perché se fate una ricerca di cucina su internet, troverete sicuramente non una ricetta ma una decina di versioni diverse della stessa ricetta!
C’è chi lascia in salamoia i semi di zucca, chi li bolle in acqua e sale, chi li cuoce con sale e olio, chi li fa dolci e la lista continua.
Ho preparato i semi di zucca tostati nel modo più veloce e facile possibile e non me ne sono pentita.
Ho lavato i semi in acqua fredda e ho eliminato tutti i residui di zucca e i fili gialli, ancora bagnati li ho stesi in una teglia e li ho cosparsi di sale.
Ho preriscaldato il forno a 150 C° in modalità ventilato (sopra e sotto) e, quando il forno era abbastanza caldo, ho posizionato la teglia nella parte bassa del forno e ho lasciato cuocere i semi per 20 minuti. Voilà!
Sono molto buoni e ricordano vagamente il sapore dei pop corn.
L’unica pecca è che finiscono troppo presto.
Avete mai assaggiato i semi di zucca tostati? Come li preparate?
Fatemi sapere!!!

Valens

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Valentina Chirico: a past as archaeologist, a present as editor between London and Bedfordshire. An expat born in Southern Italy from an expat family. She holds an MA in Egyptology from the University of Birmingham and contributed as a co-author and postgraduate ambassador to the UoB PG Recruitment Blog before fully embarking on online editing. She covers the role of Senior Writer and Language Specialist for a global marketing company. Besides archaeology and arts, this alumna loves travelling and shares an uncommon sense of humour. Online since 2009 with ValentinaChirico.com and later with ItalianMemories, Valentina is a storyteller and wants to inspire you a good laugh or to aim higher, to the stars.

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Italian Memories, Italian culture and lifestyle, semi-serious travel guide, Valentina Chirico