Chestnuts and Seasons

One day about twenty years ago I learned my lesson about seasonal foods. I was staying with my husband at his family’s home in Italy and his mom asked us to pick up something for her at the store. While we were at the supermarket, I passed by a stack of fresh tomatoes and thought I would buy some for her as well. When I returned home, my father-in-law saw me take the tomatoes out of the bag and said in a stern voice “Tomatoes in November? They are out of season. You should never buy out of season, these must have been grown in a greenhouse or in another country, they will surely taste terrible. Didn’t you know?” I am sure my face turned the same color as that tomato in that very moment. I guess at that time at home in America, eating local and seasonal was not really on our minds as much as it is now.

One of the best things about living in Italy is experiencing the season of each food through local traditions, recipes and food festivals. Each year our family gets together with a group of friends and enjoys one day of harvesting chestnuts in a nearby town in the mountains. We spend the morning in the forest collecting chestnuts and then enjoy lunch at a local chestnut festival. This year at lunch they served an appetizer which was similar to a crêpe, made with and filled with fresh sheep’s milk ricotta.

If you travel to Italy on vacation, talk to as many people as possible. Every time I strike up a conversation with someone here, I have fun, I always seem to feel like I have learned something I did not know and that I have made a new friend. Many times, I walk away with a new recipe in hand. On this day, as the lunch was coming to an end and the older crowd had already started their card game in the corner, I decided to take a walk to the kitchen to see if I could learn more about that appetizer.

I spotted two men in the kitchen who were in charge of cooking the chestnut flat breads. I walked over and introduced myself, telling them I was American and was hoping to get the recipe for this wonderful bread. They were excited by this and warmly told me their relatives had emigrated from this small mountain village in 1892 to Missouri. They were not embarrassed but proud to share the few words they knew in English. They told me I would have to pay them dearly for the recipe, but I negotiated with my camera and posting the picture below of Corinto, the man in charge of the chestnut recipes. The recipe was shared the way all Italians do, estimating! One kilo of chestnut flour, one pinch of salt, one pinch of baking soda and enough water to make a thick and sticky batter. Sugar, I asked. No, he gasped, the chestnuts are so sweet you do not need sugar. I told him we did not have the same heavy iron griddles they were using and he suggested we start exporting them together.

Many years ago in Italy where wheat was not grown, chestnut flour was used instead. It has a sweet, slightly smokey flavor and is naturally gluten free. One of the problems with baking gluten free is that without gluten, the stickiness that holds dough together is missing. Adding chestnut flour to batters can help with this problem. Many people do not know that American chestnuts suffered a mass extinction in the early 1900’s, caused by chestnut blight, a fungus that was accidentally introduced to the U.S. Visit the Chestnut Growers of America website to learn more about their efforts to restore the American Chestnut and if you are interested in baking with , we recommend supporting American farmers who are selling both flour and nuts directly online or locally. Imported chestnuts must be fumigated at the port of arrival with methyl bromide because of pests, so we would avoid those.

You might find the traditional Italian recipes that use all have a strong flavor that not everyone likes. We would like to share our own recipe for chestnut pancakes in two versions- gluten free and einkorn vegan. We found both of these recipes to be incredibly light and pleasingly flavorful.

GLUTEN FREE CHESTNUT PANCAKES

INGREDIENTS

¾ cup chestnut flour

¼ cup quinoa flour

¼ cup sweet rice flour

¼ cup buckwheat flour

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp sea salt

1¼-1½ cup milk, less for thicker pancakes

1 egg

3 tbsp butter, melted

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Sift dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.
2. Beat egg, butter and milk together with a whisk in a separate mixing bowl. Pour into flour mixture and whisk until smooth.
3. Heat a cast iron griddle or non-stick frying pan on medium, lightly cover with vegetable oil or butter, and cook about ¼ cup of batter for each pancake, browning on both sides.
4. Serve with pure maple syrup, but you will be satisfied with much less since the chestnut flour will make the pancakes naturally sweet.

 VEGAN EINKORN CHESTNUT PANCAKES

INGREDIENTS

¾ cup Jovial einkorn flour

¾ cup chestnut flour

3 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp sea salt

3 tbsp olive or vegetable oil

¼ cup rice milk

¼-½ cup sparkling mineral water

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Sift dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.
2. Beat rice milk and oil in the center of the flour mixture. Add sparkling water, a bit at a time, until you get the right consistency. If you like thick pancakes, ¼ cup of sparkling water should be enough, but add more if it seems to thick or if you like thinner pancakes.
3. Heat a cast iron griddle or non-stick frying pan on medium, lightly cover with vegetable oil, and cook about ¼ cup of batter for each pancake, browning on both sides.
4. Serve with pure maple syrup, but you will be satisfied with much less since the chestnut flour will make the pancakes naturally sweet.