With the cooler days and nights and the richer colours and flavours of autumn, I find myself longing for Tuscan chestnut dishes. Foraging is great at this time of the year: autumn walks in the countryside yield pockets full of castagne, sweet chestnuts; funghi, wild mushrooms; and branches of ever-fragrant rosemary. The Mugello, an area just 25 km north of Florence, is full of borghi and great towns for walking and foraging. The local white truffle can also be found in some areas of the Mugello, coming into season in the month leading up to Christmas. Chestnuts of the Mugello are another local specialty, bearing the Marrone Chestnut of the Mugello IGP certification. Locals roast them, toast them, boil them, grind them into flour, stuff them into pasta and even make casks and furniture with the wood of the chestnut tree.
One of my favourite simple chestnut dishes is made with freshly gathered chestnuts. I split them carefully by cutting a horizontal line down the middle of the fatter sides of the chestnuts and place them in a pot of cold water. Add a couple of sprigs of rosemary, a handful of sale grosso (rock salt) and some extra-virgin olive oil and bring to the boil. Simmer until soft yet still firm. To test, remove one of the chestnuts and peel it: the husk should be fairly easily to remove and leave the chestnut intact. The flesh should be firm yet sweet, salty and moist. These chestnuts are nice to eat just as they are, served as an aperitivo, leaving each person to shell his or her own, and accompanied by a glass of a simple local IGT red wine. I usually go for a bottle of a local red from the area in which I forage the chestnuts.
I have Florentine friends who, during the World War II, were at times so hungry that they would make a meal of pages from a book, just to have something in their stomachs, to have the sensation of feeling full. The chestnut’s humble origins from the tree to the table come from hungry peasants in search of nourishment in hard times. Rich folk would have their own supplies of wheat to grind into flour to make their breads and desserts, while Tuscan peasants would make do with what they found to fill their stomachs. Chestnuts were foraged and turned into food by necessity. But with the very little Tuscan peasants had, they still knew how to create wonderfully tasty dishes.
Here is my recipe for tortelli ripieni di crema di marroni ai funghi. This toothesome autumn dish takes some time and effort to prepare, but the hard work will definitely be worth it.
Buon appetito!
Tortelli ripieni di crema di marroni ai funghi
INGREDIENTS
Pasta filling:
1 kg castagne, sweet Marrone chestnuts
Rosemary sprigs
Bay leaves
Rock salt
Extra virgin olive oil
Pasta dough:
500 g white flour
5 egg yolks
Water
Sauce:
Local mushrooms (whatever looks the best at the market)
Spring onions
Butter
Salt and pepper
Grated parmigiano cheese
METHOD
Pasta filling: Prepare the chestnuts as instructed in the beginning of this article for an aperitivo, adding one or two bay leaves. There are enough in this recipe to keep you munching on while you are preparing! Take the chestnuts you don’t eat, peel them and pass them through a food mill to make a puree. Check the seasoning: they should be flavoursome enough with the salt and herbs to balance nicely with the sweet richness of the chestnut. If the chestnut puree is a bit dry, add some of the cooking water and a bit of oil to make a creamy, smooth, dense paste.
Pasta dough: In the meantime, make the pasta. Add the egg yolks into the flour with water and mix to a paste, kneading 5 to 10 minutes until the dough is uniform, elastic and shiny. Let rest 30 minutes; then roll it out with a rolling pin into thin sheets. Cut into rectangles of about 10x5cm each. Place the chestnut puree in small amounts on one side of the rectangles, fold over to make a square and squash down the edges firmly to close into tortelli. Always use a lot less filling than you think you should, and be sure to squeeze out the air before squashing the edges of the tortelli together.
Sauce: Select the mushrooms well, clean with a damp cloth to brush off any soil and trim the ends of the stem with a small knife. Slice straight through the whole mushroom into 5mm slices. Prepare two or three spring onions, slicing diagonally and using the green and the white alike. Heat a pan and add the butter, being careful not to burn it, then sauté the mushrooms quickly, tossing frequently to brown rather than stew. Once half cooked, after about 2 minutes, add the spring onions, season with salt and pepper. Meanwhile cook the tortelli in lots of salted boiling water. Once they float to the top they are ready; it should take about 3 minutes. Drain and toss in the pan with the funghi adding a bit of extra butter. Serve with grated parmigiano.
Wine Match
Since the chestnuts are from the Mugello, I would select an IGT Toscana from the same region: my choice is Giottino, an IGT Toscana from the Fattoria di Pianuzzo, a blend of Sangiovese, Canaiolo, red Malvasia and Tuscan Malvasia. As well as being aged in oak barrels, this wine spent some time in chestnut barrels too! A young wine, its freshness is a good balance for the sweetness of the chestnuts and the earthiness of the mushrooms in this dish.
