Instructions: Heat the oil and butter in a large heavy saucepan and gently fry the onion until soft.

Stir in the garlic and marjoram leaves the pumpkin and potato and continue to cook for a minute.

Season with the chilli salt and pepper.

Add enough stock to just cover the pumpkin turn down the heat and simmer until the pumpkin is tender about 20-25 minutes.

You may need to add more stock.

Strain about a third of the stock from the pumpkin and set aside.

Put the remainder in a food processor and pulse; the mixture should be very thick.

Return this to the saucepan and add the stock you removed.

Check for seasoning.

This is a very thick soup.

Serve with Parmesan new peppery olive oil and crostini made from toasted ciabatta rubbed with garlic and dipped into extra virgin olive oil.

Variation
Add 150g cooked cannellini beans (qv cannellini) when you add the pumpkin. Reserve some whole ones to add to the final puree.

There are many varieties of pumpkin and squash. We use the ones that have a deep orange flesh and that are moist when cut.

Serves 6

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