When you push aside the heavy cloth and enter the dining room, you are greeted by the smell of a crackling wood burning oven. One can’t help but notice the delicious smell of flatbread toasting and salmon roasting. On the walk to your table, you may even feel the fire’s warmth wash over you. This is what fall is all about.

But perhaps you want a taste of the season? From this oven comes chef Maricel Presilla’s pumpkin-stuffed Piquillo Peppers.

The peppers come swimming in a pool of Manchego cheese. Their flesh has been blackened here and there, and where the tops have been removed chunks of pumpkin peek out. Steam rises. You go in for a bite. The wood fire has unlocked a deep, vegetal flavor in the savory peppers, has tapped the pumpkin’s inner sweetness. Cheese oozes. Along the peppers some Manchego has crisped, like the Gruyere on a crock of French onion soup. These cheesy flakes add a crunch to complement the smooth melted cheese and the soft pumpkin and peppers.

At Cucharamama – everything is good! But every salty, smoky, rich bite of the pumpkin peppers is pure bliss.