Castagnaccio

After last week’s recipe for a savory main course with surprising sweet notes, this week we have a dessert with savory notes: castagnaccio, a chestnut ‘cake’ with its origins in 16th century Tuscany.

Once called il pane dei poveri, or ‘the bread of the poor’, the batter for castagnaccio is basically just chestnut flour and water, along with a handful of dried fruits and nuts thrown in. No sugar, no eggs. This simple batter is baked in a moderate oven topped with—surprise!—rosemary leaves and a drizzle of olive oil. This is one dolce that relies purely on the inherent sweetness in the chestnut flour and dried fruit, as well as an optional drizzle of sweet vinsanto, the classic Tuscan dessert wine.

The result is astonishingly good. Intensely nutty and only slightly sweet, castagnacio has a wonderful mouth feel, a bit crisp on top but, if properly baked, moist and chewy on the inside. It’s not really much like a cake, to be honest, though that’s the way it’s usually translated into English.

The texture reminds me of Liguria’s farinata genovese, but the flavor profile is more remiscent of another classic Tuscan dessert schiacciata all’uva, a kind of grape foccacia which also blends a sweet note from the grapes with savory ones from olive oil and rosemary.

Nothing exemplifies Tuscan simplicity better than this lovely dessert. No wonder it’s become popular all over Italy, giving birth to all manner of regional and local variations. For some castagnaccio is an acquired taste, but if like me you enjoy desserts that aren’t too sweet, this one’s for you.

Ingredients

Serves 6-8

• 250g (1/2 lb) chestnut flour
• 400ml (13 fl oz) water
• chopped walnuts, q.b.
• pinoli nuts, q.b.
• raisins, soaked in lukewarm water (or vinsanto) until soft, q.b.
• a sprig of fresh rosemary
• olive oil
• salt
• vinsanto (optional)

Directions

In a large mixing bowl, place the flour and a small pinch of salt.

Add water bit by bit, along with a drizzle of vinsanto if using, stirring until you have a smooth batter. Fold in a handful each of the walnuts, pinolis and raisins.

Pour the batter into a pie or cake pan or baking dish about 26cm (10-11 in) in diameter.

Top with another handful of walnuts and pinolis, along with some fresh rosemary leaves. Drizzle with olive oil.

Bake in a moderate (180C/350F) oven for about 20-25 minutes, or until the batter has cooked through and little fissures have formed on top.

Serve slightly warm or at room temperature.

Notes on castagnaccio

The recipe itself is almost a non-recipe. There’s scarcely a way to go wrong, at least in terms of method. Avoid lumps in your batter, of course. And take care not to overbake your castagnaccio, lest you lose that moist, chewy center. Just as soon as the batter solidifies and little fissures form on the top, it’s done.

The only real difficulty is finding the ingredients. Where I live it’s more or less impossible to buy chestnut flour in stores. But you can order it online. For our North American readers, I’d recommend Alma Gourmet.

The vinsanto can also be a bit tricky to source. If you can’t find it where you live, just leave it out or use another sweet dessert wine, perhaps a sauterne or Tokaj. Not Port, however. Though you’ll see it recommended as a substitute for vinsanto, it tastes nothing like it and it will discolor your cake.

I’ve avoided giving exact measurements for the raisins and nuts. Recipes are all over the map here and it really comes down to your own personal taste. As you can see, I like to go heavy on these flavorings. If you’re unsure, try about 50g (2 oz) of each for your first castagnaccio.. Then adjust to your taste the next time you make it.

Serving your castagnaccio

I think castagnaccio is gorgeous just on its own, ideally with a glass of vinsanto.

But you can serve it with whipped cream, ricotta or mascarpone for a lovely creamy accompaniment. if you like. Though it’s not very DOC, I’d imagine it would get along famously with a scoop of vanilla gelato. You can also drizzle it with some honey if you want a sweeter dessert.

Variations

Speaking of which, while castagnaccio is famously not terribly sweet, there are recipes where you add some sugar or honey to the batter. But I wouldn’t over do it. Maybe 2 or 3 tablespoons at most.

Though it has its origins in Tuscany, as it spread to other regions of Italy castagnaccio has developed numerous regional variations. Here are a few of the better known ones:

• In neighboring Liguria, they sometimes add fennel seeds to the batter.
• In Piemonte, they make a rather thicker and sweeter castagnaccio. They use milk rather than water and addi diced apple, amaretti and honey to the batter.
• And down in Puglia, they make a leavened castagnaccio more like an actual chestnut cake, with a batter enriched with eggs and flavored with cocoa and sugar.

Other common variations involve the dried fruits and nuts you add to the chestnut flour batter. A bit of orange or lemon zest, for example, or a drizzle of orange juice, add citrus notes. Candied fruits are another option or dried fruit like figs. You could add a little spice like cinnamon or nutmeg. You could use other kinds of nuts like almonds or hazelnuts. Or chocolate chips. Or another liqueur like anisette. Adding ricotta to the batter produces a puffier castagnaccio.

You can make your castagnaccio softer by adding a bit more liquid, whether water or milk, to the batter.

Thickness can also vary. As you can see in the photos, this recipe will give you a quite thin castagnaccio. In Livorno, on the other hand, they make a particularly thick variety they call toppone. Again, you can let your taste–and your bakeware—be your guide.

Finally, Giulia Scarapeggia of Juls’ Kitchen has a lovely recipe for a Christmas castagnaccio. where a sweet ricotta filling studded with candied orange and chocolate chips is sandwiched between two round slices of castagnaccio.

Really once you master the basic recipe, the sky’s the limit in terms of personalizing your castagnaccio.

Making castagnaccio ahead

I find that castagnaccio is at its best freshly made and just slightly warm. You can just prepare the batter ahead and have it at the ready in its pan, then pop it in the oven maybe a half hour before you want to serve it.

That said, you can also make castagnaccio ahead, of course. It will keep for several days. Just make sure you cover it so it doesn’t dry out. A short spell in a low oven before serving will really wake up its flavor.