This week, the Pittsburgh region approached peak fall foliage, and restaurant menus are following suit with comforting flavors of squash, apples, pumpkin and hearty meats.

But fall menus aren’t all cinnamon and sage. Across the region, chefs are pairing familiar autumn ingredients with miso, yuzu, ginger and other Asian-inspired flavors, while warm weather lingering into October keeps corn, tomatoes and other late-summer produce in the mix.

From pumpkin gnocchi to sweet corn ice cream, here are a few dishes — and by no means exhaustive list — worth seeking out around the region this fall.

Pumpkin and squash

For some, fall will always mean pumpkin.

Pumpkin lovers can’t go much bigger than the famed gnocchi pumpkin bowl ($39) at DiAnoia’s Eatery in the Strip District. The Italian restaurant serves its potato gnocchi with a pumpkin cream sauce inside an edible whole roasted pumpkin, inviting diners to scrape pieces of the pumpkin into every bite. In Shadyside, Girasole has brought back its pumpkin ravioli ($29) with brown butter, pancetta, walnuts and sage.

For something lighter, Butterjoint in Oakland offers miso squash soup ($13) with apple, ginger, coconut milk and toasted pepitas. At Feast in Richland, diners can try fall squash fritto misto ($14) with crispy lemons and herbed labneh, or dip grilled pita into butternut squash hummus ($14) layered with apple chutney, crushed pistachios and pomegranate molasses.

At Fig & Ash on the North Side, butternut squash soup ($15) gets an unexpected twist from poached pear and five-spice powder, with chili oil for heat and furikake adding a savory finish. Not strictly seasonal but especially comforting as temperatures cool, Smiling Banana Leaf’s pumpkin curry ($17) simmers kabocha squash in a warming red curry sauce.

Corn and tomatoes
(the last taste of summer)

At Spirit in Lawrenceville, two unusual additions to the pizzeria’s dessert menu aren’t quite ready to let go of summer.

Sweet corn ice cream ($8), a “riff” on Mexican street corn, comes in a silver pedestal dish, dusted with Tajín and cotija and scattered with cilantro leaves. The result is somewhere between street food and an ice cream sundae.

Created for Spirit’s summer block party, the dessert proved so popular that pastry chef Chase Goumas added it to the permanent menu.

Spirit also serves rooftop tomato sorbet ($8), made with tomatoes grown in the restaurant’s rooftop garden and finished with basil, a red wine reduction and Maldon sea salt.

“It’s a great way to preserve the big harvest we get at the end of summer,” Goumas said. “It’s sweet and a little bit savory. We always make sure to have some vegan options on the menu, and the sorbet lets the tomato flavor really stand out.”

At Feast, the fall menu also holds onto a little of summer with grilled romanesco ($30) served with baked corn pudding and cranberry chimichurri.

As the weather cools

As fall settles in, menus turn toward crisp apples, root vegetables and slightly bitter greens.

At Hey Babe in East Liberty, smoked beets ($17) come with apples, walnuts and a cider-yuzu reduction, adding a tangy contrast to the earthy vegetable. Morcilla in Lawrenceville has introduced a seasonal crunchy radicchio salad featuring locally grown radicchio, Honeycrisp apples and dates in a maple-sherry vinaigrette.

For something heartier, Ruckus Café in Shaler offers a turkey harvest wrap among its October features, pairing arugula, Granny Smith apples, tomatoes and Gouda with Dijon aioli on whole grain.

At Fig & Ash, P.E.I. mussels ($22) arrive in a warming broth of chorizo, yuzu, coconut milk, ginger and shiro dashi. The restaurant’s double-cut pork chop ($38) takes a more traditional approach with an apple cider glaze.

Sweet potatoes and other comfort foods

Sweet potatoes, maple and toasted marshmallow are familiar fall comforts, but Pittsburgh-area kitchens are finding different ways to put them to work.

At Torogoz in Sewickley, a seasonal ceviche ($23) takes a savory approach: dollops of sweet potato accompany the catch of the day (most recently mahi-mahi), red onion and ají amarillo in leche de tigre, offering a sweet, starchy counterpoint to the citrus and heat.

Wise County Biscuits on the North Side goes in a sweeter direction with its sweet potato pecan fluffernutter biscuit ($9). The open-faced sweet potato biscuit features pecan butter and toasted maple marshmallow fluff and is available ready to eat or frozen to bake at home.

At Rogue BBQ in Homestead, diners can follow wings or weekly soup specials with sweet potato pie ($8) topped with homemade marshmallow.

For a final sweet bite, Hey Babe offers pumpkin cheesecake ($14) in a chocolate graham cracker crust, while DiAnoia’s serves a gluten- and nut-free pumpkin olive oil cake ($11). In the South Side Slopes, 350° Bakery’s fall lineup includes apple cider bread and pumpkin pie shortbread.