CookEat Recipe
Castagnaccio: Chestnut-Flour Cake with Pine Nuts
A simple chestnut-flour and water cake with whole pine nuts and olive oil, with the walnut, raisin, rosemary and fried-batter variations explained separately.
Method
Steps
Step 1
Gather the ingredients: 500 g chestnut flour; 800 ml cold water; A small pinch salt; 1 handful whole pine nuts, about 40 g; About 1 tablespoon olive oil for the pan; 2 tablespoons olive oil for the surface.
Step 2
Sift the chestnut flour to break up its easily formed lumps. Put in a bowl with the small pinch of salt. Gradually stir in the 800 ml cold water to form a smooth liquid batter. Mix in the whole pine nuts.
Step 3
Choose a shallow ovenproof pan, roughly 28–30 cm across as a guide, so the batter will be about a finger and a half deep, approximately 2 cm. Cover the bottom with a thin layer of olive oil. Pour in the batter and distribute the remaining two tablespoons oil over its surface.
Step 4
Bake at 190°C for about 35–45 minutes, until firm and fully cooked with a lightly browned, naturally cracked surface. Let stand only briefly so it can be handled safely, then loosen and unmould while still hot, supporting it carefully. Serve warm in portions. The source uses oven or heat above and below; the modern oven setting and time are estimates.
Step 5
For the walnut version, add about 40 g chopped walnuts along with the whole pine nuts. For the raisin version, add about 50 g raisins, checking that no seeds or stalks remain. These can be combined if desired. A few rosemary leaves may be scattered over the surface before baking as a further source variation. Follow the same batter thickness and bake until fully cooked; none of these additions is required in the plain pine-nut main version.
Step 6
For chestnut fritters, make the same chestnut-flour, cold-water, salt and pine-nut batter. Instead of using the pan oil and surface drizzle, heat a suitable frying oil to about 170°C in a deep-sided pan. Drop in small spoonfuls, keeping them thin, and fry in batches for about 2–3 minutes per side until firm and cooked through with no wet raw-flour centre. Drain and serve hot. Frying oil quantity and timings are practical estimates for this source alternative.
Step 7
The source’s introductory aside also describes cottarone, separately baked apples or pears; they are not a cake topping or filling. For a practical small batch, wash 4 sound apples or pears, remove damaged portions and cores, place in a small ovenproof covered dish with 2 tablespoons water and bake at 180°C for about 30–50 minutes until tender, according to the fruit. An oven-safe lid replaces the historical wet-cloth cover. Serve warm. Fruit quantity, coring, oven settings and time are explicit practical additions to the brief aside.
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