I have been making minestrone with cornbread but using a packet mix. I found this recipe in Belinda Jeffery’s Mix & Bake and decided to make it from scratch.

Pumpkin Cornbread & Minestrone

375g jap pumpkin cut into 3cm chunks
150g fine stone ground yellow polenta
1 1/2 tablespoons gluten free plain flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
45g unsalted butter
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 egg lightly beaten
pepitas for topping

1. Steam pumpkin until tender. Drain and leave it cool. Mash.
2. Preheat oven to 200 degrees c. Put polenta, flour, baking powder, salt, bicarbonate of soda and nutmeg into a bowl and whisk them together.
3. Put butter in loaf tin and pop in oven to melt. Thoroughly stir the buttermilk and egg into the mashed pumpkin.
4. Remove tin from the oven and swirl around tin to coat. Tip excess butter into the pumpkin mixture and then pour into the dry ingredients. Mix together into a batter and scrape into tin, levelling batter and scatter top with pepitas.
5. Bake for about 25 minutes or until bread lightly golden and feels springy to the touch in the centre. Remove from the oven and cool bread in tin for 10 minutes and then turn onto wire rack to cool.
6. When ready to serve slice bread into chunks. Best warm or toasted and keeps well in fridge for up to 5 days.