Context : IGR J06074+2205 is a poorly studied X-ray source with a Be star companion .
It has been proposed to belong to the group of Be/X-ray binaries .
In Be/X-ray binaries , accretion onto the neutron star occurs via the transfer of material from the Be star ’ s circumstellar disk .
Thus , in the absence of the disk , no X-ray should be detected .

Aims : The main goal of this work is to study the quiescent X-ray emission of IGR J06074+2205 during a disk-loss episode .

Methods : We obtained light curves at different energy bands and a spectrum covering the energy range 0.4–12 keV .
We used Fourier analysis to study the aperiodic variability and epoch folding methods to study the periodic variability .
Model fitting to the energy spectrum allowed us to identify the possible physical processes that generated the X-rays .

Results : We show that at the time of the XMM-Newton observation the decretion disk around the Be star had vanished .
Still , accretion appears as the source of energy that powers the high-energy radiation in IGR J06074+2205 .
We report the discovery of X-ray pulsations with a pulse period of 373.2 s and a pulse fraction of \sim 50 % .
The 0.4–12 keV spectrum is well described by an absorbed power law and blackbody components with the best fitting parameters : N _ { H } = ( 6.2 \pm 0.5 ) \times 10 ^ { 21 } cm ^ { -2 } , kT _ { bb } = 1.16 \pm 0.03 keV , and \Gamma = 1.5 \pm 0.1 The absorbed X-ray luminosity is L _ { X } = 1.4 \times 10 ^ { 34 } erg s ^ { -1 } assuming a distance of 4.5 kpc .

Conclusions : The detection of X-ray pulsations confirms the nature of IGR J06074+2205 as a Be/X-ray binary .
We discuss various scenarios to explain the quiescent X-ray emission of this pulsar .
We rule out cooling of the neutron star surface and magnetospheric emission and conclude that accretion is the most likely scenario .
The origin of the accreted material remains an open question .