Fall is the time to break out your comfiest pajamas, enjoy a hot drink, and fill your home with squashes and pumpkins for decoration or for eating. We all know that pumpkin is tasty in pie, but home cooks often stick to what they know and mainly use canned pumpkin in desserts, instead of exploring the wonderful world of fresh pumpkins.

If you love roasting fall and winter squash, but haven't ventured beyond standard varieties, get your hands on a Long Island cheese pumpkin. These tan-colored pumpkins are round and squat with a bright orange flesh that tastes sweet, dense, and creamy, like a cross between a sweet potato and butternut squash.

As one of the first squashes to be domesticated, the Long Island cheese pumpkin was one of the most commercially successful squashes in the 1800s. Nowadays, this pumpkin is more underrated, but is still wonderful in purées and soups, stuffed with savory ingredients, or just slice it, oil it, and roast it until tender and sweet.