Butternut Squash & Pumpkin Spice Chili

If pork-and-pumpkin is autumn in a bowl, this is autumn turned up a notch. Real cubes of butternut squash go into a ground-pork chili spiced with a full teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice, and as they simmer they soften at the edges and hold their shape in the middle, dotting the pot with sweet, tender bites of squash. The pumpkin spice leans in harder here than in most savory dishes — cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove playing openly against the pork and chili powder — for a chili that's unabashedly cozy and cold-weather. Topped with toasted pepitas and a cool dollop of sour cream, it's the one to make when you want dinner to taste like a sweater feels.

Pepitas add crunch and the sour cream cools the sweet spice — both worth doing.

Sweet potato subs for butternut. Ground turkey works for pork. If a full teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice sounds bold, start with half — it's the defining flavor, so tune it to taste.