Beyond Pumpkin Spice: Three Italian Recipes for Autumn

Every fall, America loses its mind over pumpkin spice (I admit, I do too), while Italy has been doing autumn squash better for centuries. Zucca is everywhere in Italian fall cooking: roasted with rosemary, folded into risotto, blended into silky pasta sauces. In the northern regions, the smell of browned butter with sage permeates the autumn air.

When I traveled to Italy in mid-autumn, the temperature felt like a New Jersey summer. Not that gelato ever needs an excuse, but the heat made a convincing one.

The first dish I ate when I arrived in Venice was a classic spaghetti pomodoro. A vibrant sprig of fresh basil sat above the pasta, as if trying to cool the steam from the cooked tomatoes. It was the refreshing dish I needed that first day.

As the week went on, I began to feel like a true Italian in the nearly 80-degree weather by layering my outfit. I felt like a nonna in my scarf—I wouldn’t want to catch a cold from the slight breeze that drifted by. While a sweat mustache did, at times, form above my lip, I began to taste autumn in every meal.

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At a tiny trattoria in Florence, I ate meals that tasted like the season itself. There was a ribollita that mirrored a hug from a friend with its warm Tuscan kale and carrots. Then came tortelli di zucca, pillowy little parcels of pasta stuffed with roasted squash, sitting in a pool of browned butter with crisped sage leaves on top. Later that week, I indulged in a white lasagna, golden and bubbling, drizzled with white truffle oil at a vineyard while I sampled sips of wine in between. Every bite pulled me deeper into the season.

There is a certain type of disappointment that sets in the minute you realize you can’t order everything off the menu. I should have ordered more zucca, less nostalgia. What I didn’t order, I made up for at the markets. I eyed all the available produce Italy had to offer. People gathered around to purchase what was in season.

The markets were slowly saying ciao to peppers and zucchini, welcoming in porcini, pumpkin and squash instead. Radicchio and kale crowded the greens stalls, and pears and grapes spilled over the edges of wooden crates. I wanted to buy one of everything and cook my way through the season. But I wasn’t sure it would fit inside my luggage without the squash actually getting squashed.

As soon as I saw people crowding the stalls for porcini and pumpkins, I realized Italians naturally eat with the seasons instead of branding them. There were no packaged pumpkin-flavored foods other than actual pumpkins. The seasonal produce stood on its own without having to become something else entirely. The simplicity of the fall produce (the pumpkin, squash and mushrooms) was the whole point.

Coming home to the typical Italian-American classics in my weekly meal rotation, I knew I had to incorporate more seasonal produce. After playing around with homemade stuffed pasta, I made plump pumpkin ravioli with a butternut squash warm salad that imitated the colors of the foliage outside. Nothing was overly decadent. It was just fresh. I fell in love with cooking what was in season.

I didn't need a latte topped with whipped cream to tell me it was fall. The butternut squash I savored already told me. Here are three delicious meals to bring that Italian autumn harvest to your plate at home.

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