MY RECIPES

Recipes from my heart of all my favourites I love to cook for myself and for others.

Gathered from conversations with others over the morning market stall, from the cities my grandparents
Came from and the foods I love to eat that remind me of them, dishes I’ve created from wonderful meals out or simply
the dolce I ate with my espresso one morning that I simply needed to create again at home.

Castagnacio

A beautiful ancient recipe from the Tuscan countryside, a time when it was rare to have stocks of sugar. This nutrient torta is made from local chestnut flour which is naturally sweet. I have included a few variations as it can be found in different ways throughout Tuscany, but the very original way was without raisins as they were also hard to come by, therefore traditionally it was just local walnuts, rosemary and chestnut flour, and pinenuts if they had them which are also typical from the area.
Depending on the sweetness of your flour, I generally feel it doesn’t need the raisins but in the Southern Hemisphere the flour I have used was not as sweet as in Italy so I included them. Our palette in the modern age has become a lot sweeter so I particularly enjoy the old version as when you have beautiful local chestnut flour you allow the chestnuts to sing all on their own!

1 cup chestnut flour sieved.

Water - gb (keep adding slowly until you have a thick slightly runny cake batter.

3 TB olive oil plus more for greasing and dribbling over before baking.

3 sprigs of freshly picked Rosemary.

One Handful or two of roughly chopped walnuts.

Optional : raisins (soaked in water or vin santo Tuscan sweet wine).

Pinenuts.

Gently heat olive oil with 2 springs of fresh rosemary
to infuse.
Sieve flour.
Slowly pour water until you have a thick and pourable cake batter.
Add the infuse olive oil.
Add chopped walnuts.
Add raisins if using.
Pour into greased and lined round or rectangle cake tray.
Sprinkle pine nuts if using
of top.
Sprinkle fresh
rosemary leaves.
Drizzle olive oil on top.
Bake in 180 degree oven for 30-45min until the top is brown and slightly cracked.
Lease to cool, slice and serve,
Keep in a sealed container up to 3-4 days.

BRIDGET ELLERY

MY RECIPES

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