Castagnaccio: Italian chestnut cake
One of the old fashion winter recipes I love the most is castagnaccio, a gluten and sugar free chestnut cake. It is made in many regions of Italy and every regions has its own variant.
I am sharing the Venetian recipe, simple, easy to make and perfect with a cup of black tea or coffee.
Castagnaccio is rather rustic and gives me a sense of home. While it is baking, the house is inundated with a lovely perfume of rosemary. Once upon a time, it was considered a poor food, whereas now it can be quite pricey. It is the sort of thing I prefer to make at home.
I hope you will like it too. let me know!
RECIPE:
CASTAGNACCIO: GLUTEN FREE CHESTNUT CAKE
Ingredients:
500 gr chestnut flour
650 ml water
5 gr salt
100 gr raisins
100 gr chestnuts
100 gr pine nuts
half a handful of rosemary
40 ml e.v.o.oil
Method:
Prepare rosemary leaves and keep aside, soak the raisins for 10 minutes and then squeeze them to remove excess water, grossly chop the walnuts. Sift the flour, add the water and whisk. Add raisins, chestnuts, pine nuts, rosemary and salt (keep part of the ingredients aside for later), whisk again and pour into a previously greased baking pan. Add a little bit of oil on top and garnish with all the ingredients. Bake at 190° for 35 minutes, until it gets nice and crunchy and forms lots of cracks on the top.