Garfagnana news

The recipe for chestnut cake of Garfagnana (“Castagnaccio”):

Ingredients for 8 people :

• 400 gr of chestnut flour
• 3 tablespoons of sugar
• 60 gr of pine nuts
• 50 gr of walnuts
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 orange
• 1/2 glass of extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 glass milk
• 1 sprig of rosemary

Preparation: Put the flour in a bowl with sugar, salt, milk and a part of the olive oil. Mix all the ingredients with a whisk until you get a smooth and creamy paste; add the orange peel (small pieces), half dose of pine nuts, half portion of walnuts and incorporate well. Pour the batter into a oiled pan . Place the remaining pine nuts and walnuts on the surface, add the rosemary leaves and remaining olive oil. Bake at 170° degrees for about an hour.

Curiousity :

from chestnuts to chestnut flour:

One of fruits of autumn characterizing the Garfagnana region is chestnut. Harvest begins in October. The drying of the fruit is done in typical stone huts (called “metati”) in which chestnuts rest for about one month, over a slow fire (daily strengthened) generating a constant heat. Then, after a careful cleaning from residues of outer peels, the dried chestnuts are brought to the mill, and here, often with old methods (the millstones rotate with the force of the river water) are transformed into chestnut flour.

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