Castagnaccio - Chestnut cake

Ingredients:

300 g of chestnut flour; 50 g of sultanas soaked in warm water and dried; 50 g of pinenuts; one spoonful of sugar; a handful of rosemary leaves; a glass and a half of cold water; 6 spoonfuls of extra virgin olive oil; a pinch of salt.

Preparation time:

10' in addition to the time for soaking the sultanas - Cooking time: 30'

Directions:

Put the flour, sugar, salt and 2 spoonfuls of oil into a bowl. Pour in the water a little at time, stirring well to obtain a fairly runny mixture with no lumps. Add half the sultanas and pine-nuts, mix, leave for 30' and pour into an oil-greased baking pan with a diameter of 26, or into a typical rectangular baking-pan that gives the mixture a thickness of about 1 cm. Sprinkle with the remaining sultanas, pine-nuts and rosemary, pour on 2 spoonfuls of oil and cook in a hot oven for 30'. The cake is ready when the surface is brown, crispy and cracked.

Notes:

Castagnaccio has a very ancient history, and may originally hava come from Lucca. In Casentino it is called baldino, in some areas of the Florentine territory ghirighio, in others migliaccio. There are those who consider the thicker version (three fingers thick) more traditional, those who add walnuts and flavour it with grated orange peel, and those who omit the rosemary or even, when the flour si particularly good, the sugar.
Pattonais made with chestnut flour cooked for 10', wighout ever stirring, in a litre of boiling water with 2 spoonfuls of sugar and a pinch of salt. It is served warm, cut into slices, with ricotta or fresh pecorino.

You can find this and other recipes in the book:
Maria Salemi, Florence - City gourmet guide, Nardini Editore
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