‘Blessed’ Pumpkin Mash

Pumpkin has played a big part in Italian Jewish cooking since it was brought into Italy from the New World by successive waves of migrant Jews. In Veneto today there is a funny bumpy-looking variety called Zucca Barucca (ideal for this recipe), whose name is worth explaining. In Venetian dialect this sounds like the Italian word for verruca, a bumpy and annoying wart on the skin. The same word is baruca in Latin. But another, more kindly explanation comes from the popularit