Pumpkincello!

It’s perfectly acceptable to start planning your Thanksgiving menu after the Halloween decorations come down. But at ONE. Midtown Kitchen in Atlanta, Georgia, bar manager Dawn Jones has created a recipe that’ll inspire you to start cooking weeks in advance as well.

As a seasonal spin on limoncello, Jones is making pumpkincello, a recipe that requires three weeks for vodka to be infused with raw and roasted pumpkin skin. And it’s worth the wait: You can top it with Champagne; pour it over cheesecake; spike coffee with it or add it to half and half and sip it from a martini glass with a crushed graham cracker rim. Gravy’s not even that talented!

Pumpkincello

• 2 baking size pumpkins
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 cups water
• 2 sticks cinnamon
• 24 allspice berries, whole
• 2 green cardamom
• 1 nutmeg clove, crushed

Preheat oven to 350. Cut pumpkins in half. Remove seeds and strings. Place one pumpkin on a baking sheet. Bake for about 40 minutes or until soft. Remove and let cool.

Remove the outer skin from the other pumpkin and chop into medium-sized pieces. Place the raw pumpkin in a glass jar. Cover with 1 liter of vodka. 

When roasted pumpkin has cooled, the skin should peel off easily. Chop and cover with 1 liter of vodka.

Store raw and roasted versions in separate containers in a cool dark place for 3 weeks.

Toast cinnamon sticks, allspice berries, green cardamom and nutmeg in a pan until fragrant. Combine sugar, water and spices in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Stir until sugar dissolves.  Reduce heat and let simmer until reduced by half. Strain.

Combine roasted and raw pumpkin vodka mixtures. Add spiced simple syrup. Chill and serve.