Long Island Cheese Squash or Fairytale Tuscan Pumpkin?

Tuscan or Long Island?

I recently ordered a bunch of pumpkins and squash as centerpieces for tables at a function I was catering. I am not one to use decorations unless it is from the garden. November can be a challenging month for garden centerpieces. I ordered delicata, acorn, dumpling and sweet pumpkin. Emily at Morning Glory Farm who handles wholesale orders said I should take some Long Island Cheese Pumpkins. Humm? What the heck is that, I wondered? Whatever she described did not sound familiar so I said, let's take it. It arrived and I immediately recognized it as Fairytale Tuscan Pumpkin.  When I was in Italy, I saw this pumpkin all over and it translated to “Tuscan pumpkin” when I asked for the name.

Jim Athearn of Morning Glory Farm and I had a few emails back and forth about it and here is what he had to say:

“We did a blind taste test with it for pumpkin pie.  We cooked with pumpkin, Hubbard Squash, and Long Island Cheese and the tasters ranked Cheese pumpkin as the best, closely followed by pumpkin and Hubbard last. The name Tuscan sounds familiar but I cannot find it in Johnny’s or Harris seed companies.  There used to be a largish gourd/squash called Turk’s Turban that looked like a large Buttercup with colorful stripes and swirls.  As you say, if you are in Italy it probably isn’t called Long Island."

So here is the dirt I uncovered about the Long Island Cheese Pumpkin or  Fairytale Tuscan:

The cheese pumpkin is a moschata squash just like the butternut,neck pumpkins and the calabaza squash.

Moschata squash like Long Island Cheese is the best for pies. When compared to the sugar pumpkin, the moschata squash is mush more dense, far less watery, not at all stringy and vibrant in color.

Moschata squash are higher in nutrients and sugars. It holds up very well in stews and roasted. Cheese pumpkins also keep well stored in a cool room of your house for most of the winter, much longer than sugar pumpkins.

I am cooking a large one to make pumpkin pie with !

cooked Long Island Cheese Pumpkin