Steirisches Kürbisgemüse (Styrian Creamed Pumpkin)

On our trips through Austria, Gretel and my grandmother Eva always insisted we drive south into Styria at least once. Gretel called it the garden of Austria, and she wasn't exaggerating. The hills roll green into vineyards and orchards, and in autumn the pumpkin fields turn the whole landscape orange. I remember stopping at a Buschenschank, one of those farmhouse wine taverns where the food comes from the property itself, and being served a bowl of this. Warm, creamy, sweet from the pumpkin, sharp with a splash of vinegar, and on top a drizzle of oil so dark it looked nearly black. That was my first taste of Kernöl, Styrian pumpkin seed oil, and I've never forgotten it.

Kürbisgemüse is one of those Austrian dishes that sounds like nothing and tastes like everything. You grate a pumpkin coarsely, cook it down with onions until it softens into something halfway between a vegetable side and a warm salad, then stir through sour cream and finish it with dill and that extraordinary oil. The technique is simple. What makes it work is the pumpkin itself, good and ripe, and the Kernöl at the end. Without the oil, it's a pleasant side dish. With it, the whole thing comes alive.

Gretel always said Styrian cooking was Austria's best-kept secret. It's quieter than Viennese cuisine, less famous, but when you eat something like Kürbisgemüse made properly, with the right pumpkin and a bottle of good Kernöl, you understand what she meant. This is good Austrian home cooking at its most honest.