Pumpkin Satchels

Called, in Niçois dialect, Barba Jouan (“Uncle John”), these little pastry purses, served hot from the oven as an hors d’oeuvre and washed down with a well-chilled white wine redolent of the fruit of tender youth—Muscadet, Pouilly-fumé, Sancerre, for instance—are a joy and a perfect example of that which the meridional French like to describe affectionately as their cuisine spirituelle. They may also be served, apart, as an accompaniment to a bouillon or other relatively light