Castagnaccio – if this be the food of love!
Cinzia wrote the following on the history and significance of Catagnaccio. Enjoy! :)
“Castagnaccio“, or baldino or pattona or (in my house “migliaccio“) is a very special dessert, simple but particular, made with chestnut flour and studded with raisins, pine nuts, walnuts and rosemary.
Because the chestnut, main element of the castagnacio, is widespread in regions like the Veneto, Piedmont, Lombardy and Tuscany, there are respectable versions of castagnaccio all over northern Italy. The castagnaccio is most identified with Tuscany though, its history closely tied to this region and especially the city of Siena.
The cake was initially, like most traditional recipes, popular with poor peasants, as the main ingredient – chestnut – was readily available throughout the countryside. What is certain is that this cake has its origins in a very remote past: in fact, in the 1500’s it was was well known, as noted by an Augustine priest in his writings at the time. The creator of the castagnaccio seems to have been the Tuscan Pylades from Lucca. The cake seems to have taken its current form in Tuscany in the 1800s, with the addition of raisins, pine nuts, and rosemary, and from there it was exported to other regions.
The castagnaccio is also perfumed with the superstitions associated with rosemary, an essential ingredient, which is supposed to have aphrodisiac qualities. It was believed that if a young man had eaten “the gnaccia” with rosemary offered to him by a you woman, he would fall in love and seek her hand in marriage…
Castagnaccio
Sweet chestnut flour (farina di castagna) 400g
Raisins 100g
Pine nuts 50g
6 walnuts
Rosemary
2 tsp sugar
Olive oil
pinch of salt
Sift the chestnut flour into a bowl and add the sugar, pinch of salt and half a litre of water. Mix well to obtain a liquid batter without lumps. Add 2 tsp of oil and let it rest for one hour. Grease a pan and pour the batter in – the batter should be less than one finger high – no more!
Sprinkle the surface with rosemary needles, raisins (which have been soaked) and small walnut pieces. Drizzle another 2 tsp of oile on the top and cook for 40 min at 180C in a preheated oven.
This is the recipe used in my family for generations – but I never measure anything! Buon appetito!
– Cinzia
