How to Roast Pumpkin Seeds (Crispy and Salty)

Set the pumpkin on a sturdy cutting board with a kitchen towel underneath to keep it from rolling. Grab your longest, heaviest chef's knife - one you trust.

Start at the top, near the stem. Pierce the knife straight down using the point, then work the blade in a sawing motion, wiggling it as you go. Carving pumpkins aren't the toughest squash, so let gravity help. Cut all the way down one side, pull the knife out, then come at it from the other side. Join the two cuts at the bottom.

Once both cuts meet at the bottom, set the pumpkin upright and work it open with your hands. There will be seeds everywhere - that's the point.

You'll see strings of orange pulp tangled around fat white seeds. The two halves are now your bowls. Grab a big metal spoon and start scraping the inside, pulling all of that stringy mess into a separate bowl.

Fill a big bowl with cool water and dump the pulp and seeds in. Here's the trick: seeds float, pumpkin flesh sinks.

Use your fingers to swish things around. Pinch the clusters of seeds attached to the strings and they slide right off. Push the heavy pulp toward the bottom and let the seeds rise. After a minute or two you'll have a clean layer of seeds floating on top.

A spider strainer (the wire-mesh basket on a long handle) is perfect for this. Scoop across the top of the water and catch all those floating seeds in one swoop.

Don't worry if a few strings of pulp come along. Most of it will fall off in the boiling pot. Just transfer the scooped seeds into your saucepan.

Cover the seeds with water, add a generous tablespoon of kosher salt, and bring to a steady boil. Set a timer for 10 minutes.

This is the move most home cooks skip. Each pumpkin seed is wrapped in a thin papery hull. If you go straight to the oven, the hull scorches before the seed inside ever toasts - so you end up with burnt outsides and raw centers. Pre-boiling cooks the seed from the inside, so when it hits the oven everything finishes at once.

Pour the boiled seeds through a strainer, then dump them onto a paper-towel-lined plate. Spread them in a single layer and blot the top with another paper towel.

Dry seeds matter. Wet seeds steam in the oven instead of roasting, and the oil, sugar, and salt won't stick to a wet surface. Take an extra minute here. Press, don't rub.

Strip a few sprigs of rosemary off the stem and mince the leaves fine. You want flecks throughout, not whole needles - rosemary tastes like pine in big bites.

Tip the dry seeds into a bowl. Add a tablespoon of olive oil, a teaspoon of light brown sugar, a half teaspoon of flaky sea salt, and the minced rosemary. Toss with your hands until every seed is glossy.

Tear a sheet of parchment paper and line a rimmed baking sheet. Brown sugar will scorch onto bare metal, and parchment also makes cleanup a 5-second job.

Shake the seasoned seeds out of the bowl and spread them in a single even layer. Crowded seeds steam. A single layer roasts. Use two sheets if you have to.

Slide the pan onto the middle rack of a 325F oven. Set a timer for 15 minutes. Pumpkin seeds can take anywhere from 15 to 25 minutes depending on size and how dry they got - peek often.

Every 5 minutes or so, pull the pan out and toss the seeds with a spatula or by shaking the pan. You're chasing even golden color on both sides, not just the bottoms. They're done when the sugar has glazed up, the hulls are crisp golden-brown, and the kitchen smells like rosemary and toasted nuts.

Slide the pan onto a cooling rack and let the seeds sit for 5 minutes. They crisp up more as they cool - hot seeds taste slightly chewy, cool ones snap.

Crack one in half. You want a fully toasted hull on the outside and a deep golden seed inside. That's the difference between raw and roasted - the same flavor you get when you toast pecans or pine nuts before adding them to a recipe.

Eat them by the handful. Store leftovers in an airtight jar at room temperature for up to a week. They almost never last that long.