Tuscan castagnaccio, grandma’s recipe. The castagnaccio, also called baldino or pattona, is an autumn dessert that is humble, simple, and has a peculiar texture, made with chestnut flour. It is also enriched with raisins, pine nuts, walnuts and rosemary. It is not easy to determine the exact origin of the original Tuscan castagnaccio, because similar desserts are also present in Veneto, in Piedmont – where the famous Mont blanc is prepared – and in Lombardy, which shows that chestnuts are a much-loved and widespread ingredient in these regions. All castagnaccio variants have peasant origins, but share the same basic foundation: water, chestnut flour and rosemary. It seems the first inventor of this recipe was the Tuscan Pilade from Lucca, but it was only from the 1800s that the Tuscans exported castagnaccio to the rest of Italy, at the same time enriching it with raisins, pine nuts and rosemary. Every family keeps its own castagnaccio recipe, and mine, learned from my grandmother, is the one I will tell you about! Let’s go to the kitchen now, but first I remind you that if you want to stay updated on new recipes you can follow my Facebook page and my Instagram profile. I almost forgot: if you try it, let me know!

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Difficulty: Very easy
Cost: Very inexpensive
Preparation time: 10 Minutes
Cooking methods: Oven
Cuisine: Italian
Seasonality: Autumn, Autumn, Winter

Ingredients to make Tuscan castagnaccio

4 1/6 cups chestnut flour
3 cups water
3/4 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup raisins
3/4 cup walnut kernels (coarsely chopped)
3 1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 1/2 tbsp sugar (optional)
1 sprig rosemary (fresh)
3/4 tsp fine salt

Tools

Round baking pan 12.6 in
Oven
Bowl
Whisk

Steps to make castagnaccio

To make Tuscan castagnaccio, rinse the raisins under running water and then soak them for 10 minutes so they rehydrate. Lightly toast the pine nuts in a pan and set them aside. Put the chestnut flour in a bowl and add the water little by little, whisking until you obtain a smooth, homogeneous mixture completely free of lumps.
Add the sugar only if the flour is not sweet enough, because in the original recipe it would not be added. Add the squeezed raisins, the toasted pine nuts and the coarsely chopped walnuts, finishing with a few needles of rosemary. Be sure to reserve a few walnut pieces, some pine nuts and some raisins for the final decoration.
Add the salt and the oil and mix well. Grease a round shallow pan about 12.6 inches (32 cm) and pour the batter, leveling it well. Sprinkle the surface of the castagnaccio with the reserved pine nuts, walnuts and raisins and a few more rosemary needles. Bake in a preheated conventional oven at 383°F for about 35 minutes or until a cracked crust forms on the surface and the dried fruit turns golden. Remove from the oven, let cool and enjoy.