Roast Pumpkin & Tahini Blackened Bruschetta Serves 6 – 8
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About 1500g of pumpkin, thick skin and seeds removed and cut into 1-inch by ½-inch chunks
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5 tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil, plus 2 tablespoons
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1 teaspoon of Sea Salt
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5 garlic cloves, minced
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½ cup pure tahini paste
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Cracked black pepper
Heat the oven to 160C. Lay the washed and dried ayote pieces on two baking sheets, or more, so that they fit in a single layer. Douse with the 5 tablespoons of olive oil and sea salt, then toss, and re-align them again into a single layer. Roast for about one hour, until the edges are dark brown and the ayote has shrunk in size by about one-third.
Remove from the oven and place the ayote in a bowl. Mash with a wooden spoon or potato masher very roughly, adding the 2 tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil and the garlic. With a spoon scoop ½ cup of pure tahini paste into the mixture and stir 2-3 times- do not blend into a smooth mixture. Add 1 teaspoon cracked black pepper. Depending on how large your bread slices are, cover the surface with a few spoonfuls of ayote-tahini. Never wipe smooth! Never!
Mound the mixture roughly on the bread, but evenly- and the uneven height will create beautiful charring patterns- it should not look like Baby Gerber spread on toast!
Charr the bruschetta under a broiler until the edges are blackened, but not everything is blackened. Eat warm, with delight.
For bruschetta and assembly:
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1 long loaf of European style bread, sliced about ¾-inch thick, on the diagonal
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about ½ cup of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Brush each bread slice with Extra Virgin Olive Oil with a pastry brush. Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. When hot, at as many bread slices as fit the pan. Toast each bruschetta slice until golden at the edges. Place the toasted bread slices on a baking sheet and top each with a mound of ayote-ricotta mash. When finished, broil the bruschetta until blackened at the edges and bits of the mash. Watch carefully so that you do not completely burn them.
With cottage cheese or ricotta:
Follow the same directions as for the ayote-tahini bruschetta, but add in ½ cup of cottage cheese or fresh ricotta instead of tahini. Top sparsely with flat-leaf parsley and a few raw pine nuts.
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What is a renaissance recipe?
It is the embodiment of joy and the art of celebration. It offers intensity, signifiers of culture, human traditions, of bonding with goodness, with the life drive, with the grace of giving.
Radha Ma is the Gyana Director and head of the teaching faculty at the Sat Yoga Ashram. She is the ashram’s first clinical atmanologist, as well as the ashram Musical Director. She was born in San Francisco and raised into psycho-spiritual adulthood under Shunyamurti’s guidance in her 20s and 30s.
She is currently writing her second cookbook, Tropical Renaissance, for her Costa Rican audience, and is in the process of composing her first opera.
