Baked Stuffed Pumpkin

To prepare the stuffed pumpkin, start with the cleaning of the pumpkins: cut the top part of the pumpkins, with a spoon scoop out the inside. Set aside the pulp, which you will use for the filling of the baked pumpkins. Wash the inside of the pumpkins and let them dry.

Move on to the cleaning of the vegetables: wash the peppers and remove the internal seeds, then cut them into cubes. Also clean the chili pepper, if you do not like spicy flavors eliminate it from the recipe, otherwise leave it whole; in this way it will flavor the filling of the pumpkins, without being excessively spicy.

Put all the peppers in a bowl, add the whole chili pepper and the pumpkin pulp (if the latter does not have the same size as the peppers, cut it further with the knife).

Now take the sausage: with your hands break it into small pieces.

Cut the onion and put a drizzle of oil in a pan: fry the onion for a few seconds, then add the peppers with the pumpkin and the sausage. Sauté on high heat for a few seconds, then add the tomato sauce: simmer on low heat, adjust with salt and pepper and also add the thyme. When the tomato sauce is thick, turn off the heat.

While the filling is on the fire, start the cooking of the pumpkin in the oven: if you do not have time, you can skip this step, using the pumpkins only as a decorative container in which to serve the sausage chili. Otherwise, place the pumpkins (both the hollowed part and the lid that will serve to close it) in a baking dish, preheat the oven to 200°C and bake for about 10 minutes.

After this time, remove the pumpkin from the oven and also insert the filling in the center and put everything back in the oven: in this way the pumpkin will be flavored and you will finish cooking the meat.

Leave in the oven for another 10 minutes, then serve the baked stuffed pumpkin still hot.