Flan di Zucca con FondutaPumpkin Flan with Fontina Fonduta

Soak the Fontina in milk for the fonduta

• 1 Prepare the fonduta, a Piedmontese and Valle d’Aosta cheese sauce made by soaking Fontina in milk, melting it with butter over a water bath and emulsifying with yolks: thinly trim the rind from 120 g Fontina and cut into 1 cm cubes.
• 2 Put the cubes in a bowl, pour over 100 ml cold milk to immerse the cheese, cover and soak for 2 hours in the refrigerator at 5°C or below.

Roast the squash wedges to concentrate sweetness

• 1 Preheat the oven to 200°C.
• 2 Cut the squash, 600 g net after removing seeds and fibers, skin-on into wedges 3 cm thick.
• 3 Line a tray with baking parchment and arrange without overlapping, cut faces up.
• 4 Drizzle 15 ml extra virgin olive oil over the upward-facing cut surfaces, then season those same surfaces with 2 g salt and 0.3 g black pepper.
• 5 Bake at 200°C for 40–50 minutes.

Sieve and reduce the purée

• 1 While the roasted squash is hot, slide a spoon between skin and flesh and scrape out only the flesh.
• 2 Press through a fine sieve with a wooden spoon to remove fibers and make a smooth purée.
• 3 Spread thinly in a frying pan and cook over medium heat for 3–5 minutes, stirring constantly to evaporate moisture.
• 4 Remove from the heat, transfer to a bowl and cool, stirring occasionally, to about body temperature, around 35°C.

Combine and strain the squash batter

• 1 Warm 60 ml cream in a small saucepan over low heat to about 35°C.
• 2 In a bowl, loosen 1 whole egg and 1 yolk with a whisk without aerating, then pour in the warm cream and mix evenly.
• 3 Add the egg mixture to the body-temperature squash purée in 3 additions, folding from the bottom with a spatula after each to make an appareil, a fluid egg-and-cream batter.
• 4 Add 30 g freshly grated Parmigiano, 0.3 g grated nutmeg and 2 g salt and mix thoroughly with a spatula.
• 5 Pass the batter once through a chinois, a fine conical sieve, into a bowl, pressing gently with the spatula.

Fill 4 molds and bake gently in a water bath

• 1 Meanwhile(While the flans bake.) Dry-toast 20 g hazelnuts in a frying pan over medium heat for 3–4 minutes, shaking constantly until fragrant and lightly colored, then chop roughly on a board.
• 2 Preheat the oven to 150°C.
• 3 Brush 15 g room-temperature butter over every part of the interiors of 4 molds of 150 ml capacity, from base to rim.
• 4 Add 15 g breadcrumbs successively to the molds, turning to coat all the insides, then invert to remove excess.
• 5 Divide the batter equally among the 4 molds, approximately 130 ml per 1 mold, to 5 mm below the rim. Tap the bases gently on the worktop 2–3 times to release air bubbles.
• 6 Arrange the 4 molds in a deep ovenproof tray and gently pour in water at 60°C to 2/3 of their height: bagno maria, baking in a water bath.
• 7 Bake the tray in the oven at 150°C for 35–40 minutes.

Let the flans settle in their molds

• 1 Use tongs to lift the 4 molds from the tray, set on a rack and rest for 15 minutes.

Keep the flans warm and finish the fonduta

• 1 Lower the oven setting to 60°C and confirm with an oven thermometer that it has cooled to that temperature.
• 2 Put the 4 flans, still in their molds, on a tray and return to the 60°C oven with 4 serving plates to keep warm until plating.
• 3 Heat a pot of water over low heat to around 70°C, with fine bubbles at the bottom but a still surface.
• 4 Transfer the soaked Fontina and its milk to a heavy stainless-steel bowl, add 15 g chilled butter in 1 cm cubes and set over the water bath. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon for 6–8 minutes to melt cheese and butter.
• 5 Remove the bowl from the bath and stir for 30 seconds to cool slightly, then add 2 yolks at once and mix quickly to combine.
• 6 Return to the water bath and heat for 3–5 minutes, stirring constantly in a figure 8 to thicken. Grind in 0.2 g white pepper and stir.

Unmold the warm flans and finish with fonduta

• 1 Using oven gloves, take the 4 warm plates and 4 flan molds from the oven.
• 2 Run a palette knife around the inside edge of a mold, invert onto the center of a warm plate and gently lift away. Repeat for the remaining 3.
• 3 Divide all the warm fonduta equally among the 4 plates, pouring from the tops of the flans.
• 4 Divide the 20 g chopped hazelnuts equally among the 4 plates, scattering on the flans and over the sauce.