Chestnuts roasting on an open fire That's all we know about this amazing fruit.
I'm here in Mugello for the Chestnut Festival and it's unbelievable what happens with this fruit.
It's high in iron, phosphorous, magnesium, Its good for your heart.
It lowers cholesterol.
It makes your brain function better.
So let's discover the joy of chestnuts in Mugello, in Tuscany Today, on Christina Cooks: The Macroterranean Way.
Underwriting for Christina Cooks is provided by Suzanne's Specialties, offering a full line of alternative vegan and organic sweeteners and toppings.
Suzannes Specialties: sweetness the way Mother Nature intended.
And by Jonathans Spoons.
Individually handcrafted from cherry wood, each designed with your hand and purpose in mind.
Additional funding provided by: Hi, Im Christina Pirello and this is Christina Cooks, where each week we take fresh seasonal ingredients and whip them into amazing dishes.
Will they all be plant-based?
Yeah.
Will they all be delicious?
Absolutely.
You know, chestnuts are an amazing fruit.
They're actually known as bread of the woods, and they've been around since the dinosaurs.
And we used them in eating when barley or wheat was more scarce because we could grind them into flour and people would be nourished.
Theyre high in fiber, high in calcium, high in protein.
They're high in all sorts of nutrients.
So they were a really good substitute when we are barley wasn't abundant for people.
So we decided to do something a little different with you all.
Today we are going to have the most special day that you can imagine.
We have friends who live in a town called an area called Mugello, in a town called Firenzuola.
and they own a small village that is ancestry of Fosco Ferri, and his family grew and processed chestnuts for hundreds of years.
So we decided to go up to the mountain and see what they do with chestnuts.
And as we arrived in the little town of Firenzuola, we were so lucky.
It was the annual Chestnut Festival.
It was the greatest day, and I cannot wait to share it with you.
So let's not waste any more time.
Andiamo!
Let's go.
(Italian music plays) I'm here in Firenzuola, a lovely small town in Tuscany, in the region of Mugello, where they celebrate chestnuts.
And lucky for us, it's Chestnut Festival Day.
Look at this gorgeous town.
And they're celebrating the fruit of the deciduous plant, the chestnut.
Or as they're known here, castagne.
(Italian music continues) (truck engine struggles up hill) Amici!
Ah, Christina, finalmente!
Finalmente!
Grazie!
Bienvenuto!
Usually I only see you in Fierenze!
Pleasure to see you again here!
This is a paradise.
Oh, you're working hard, I see.
Yeah, we are in the middle of the harvest.
- Now?
Yeah, this moment.
And so they just fall?
You don't pull from the tree.
Oh, no, no, no.
We await the right moment and then we pick it up.
Remarkable.
So what are we doing today?
We harvest.
We, were going to see the village.
We're going to cook something together.
Andiamo!
But... Can help you?
Can help you me for picking up the chestnuts?
Si, certo!
Okay, youre hired!
Great.
(Italian music continues) So here we are in this stand of trees, right?
And these are ancient, I take it?
Especially... Obviously.
Yeah.
But they look like they're very precise in the spacing.
Is called the Sistema Tindico.
Okay.
The chestnuts position is eight meters each Apart.
In a triangle.
Perch, why?
Because this is the best exposure to the sun.
So it's like having the mountain cover of trees not fighting for the light.
And this is something that they put together as information in the 11th century.
So at some time of the day, each tree gets light because it's a triangle, correct?
Right.
Brilliant.
You see.
Yeah.
And you don't have other trees in the middle, not only because we cut it, but because that you don't have light.
So nothing else can grow.
Yes.
(Italian music continues) So... what are we looking at here?
No way.
Yeah!
Okay, so, Fosco, there's a giant door in this tree.
(speaking Italian) The entrance may be small.
(speaking Italian) Yeah.
But inside, its comfortable.
Mamma mia!
It's nice.
It's beautiful.
It's beautiful.
Yeah.
And how old is it?
How old?
Between five and 600 years old.
I love it.
I'm staying here, bye!
(Italian music plays) So people just do this all day.
When it's chestnut harvest, they just pick them off the ground like this, wow.
Correct.
These are pretty.... Yeah.
Yeah.
Pretty spindly and tough.
Yeah, but you see.
People just pick this off the ground?
They don't pick from that.
No.
Show me.
You see, we don't open the shell.
It's like... its very... You sit there and we pick when they.
Come over, when they fall out.
Yeah.
So you could wear gloves?
No, no, no, no, no, no.
I'm tender.
I could wear...
It's better with gloves.
Sure.
Okay.
(Italian music continues) First of all, I love this kitchen.
Yeah.
It's like the perfect kitchen.
I have the fire behind me.
We have the oven outside.
We have the wood oven in the other kitchen.
Amazing.
So we made some miniature ravioli.
So while I chop the walnuts that will go into the olive oil to go over the ravioli.
Tell me how you made them.
Ravioli is, um, chestnuts inside, they are boiled, Then crushed and seasoned with rum.
Rum?
Rum.
Rum.
I said rum, not room. Bravo.
As an Italian.
Salt and pepper.
It's really super easy beginning.
Simple, yeah.
But, you know, you have chestnuts, rum, that are sweet.
Yes.
One thing.
So sweet.
The first one that you eat, it's always like, What is this? And the second is already addiction.
So it's wonderful.
Oh yeah.
I cant wait.
Yeah, yeah.
(speaking Italian) Yeah.
A little bit more.
A little more.
Okay.
And then we're cooking these with a little olive oil.
Yes.
And that becomes the gravy.
So to speak.
Correct.
Over the ravioli and the ravioli because they're fresh, will cook, How long?
Two minutes?
Three minutes?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
Okay, perfect.
Perfect.
I see.
That's it.
Piu, piu, piu.
Listen.
Haha!
We need to be quick.
I have to say.
Grazie!
This way.
Okay?
Okay.
So now, shall we put the ravioli in?
Roberto, did you salt the water?
No, please!
Have to salt it well.
Yeah.
(speaking Italian) Okay Roberto, we need to be quick.
We need to be quick.
(speaking Italian) There's an edge.
Amazing!
Oh, my gosh.
Ha!
They all fell at once.
Two minutes, maybe?
Yes.
(Italian music plays) Okay, So you see how the ravioli have all risen to the top?
And so Roberto is going to put them right into this pan of olive oil Right now?
Si, certo.
They all are at the top, our little babies.
Okay.
Come here.
Tutto.
Don't miss any.
No, no, no.
But you see, they look...
They're like puffs.
Smaller, Fosco, smaller.
Smaller.
This is better.
There's they're puffy like little pillows.
And so that's how, you know, the dough is so tender with wheat and chestnut flour and the chestnut filling.
And then we're going to warm this with some walnuts and have the perfect Tuscan pasta dish during chestnut season.
I cant wait to eat this!
Got it.
This is perfect for pasta.
Yeah.
I need this tool.
If you can't find it tomorrow, you'll know it came to my house in the United States.
Okay.
Because this is perfect.
Immediately.
We didn't miss one little raviolino.
We dont toast the nuts.
They go right in.
(speaking Italian) And so now you're just going to toss these little ravioli filled with chestnuts.
You see how the the oil sizzling already.
And you just want to create like a simple, simple, simple... You don't need salt, you don't need anything.
Because we salted the pasta water and you've got the sweetness of the chestnuts and this perfect dough.
Absolutely the best.
This is so nice.
(Italian music continues) So, Fosco.
This is bellissimo.
Beautiful.
But where...
I know we're in Mugello, but where are we?
We are in Pratelecchia.
This village is very old.
In the seventh century.
Wow!
Yes.
Seventh century?
Seventh century, Yes.
Yeah.
And this structure was part of the town?
The structure is is made only with stone local stone and made it there from the habitat from here and they built everything.
And you show me around.
Yeah, sure.
Wow, This is amazing.
Yeah.
(Italian music continues) So, Fosco, Why does this house have scaffolding?
Okay, this house is my grandfathers house.
No way.
Yeah.
Sure.
He was born here?
He was born here.
And now I...
I need to... To repair the...
So you want to save it?
Wow.
Yeah, because.
Save.
I need to save it.
This village in the left side of you...
This side?
Youll see... You see the habitation.
the homes, the homes of the people and.
And this side?
This side, the laboratory Shops.
Shops, and so on.
And when this town was at its peak, it's most alive.
How many people lived here?
In in the first... of the last century.
Okay.
There are thirteen families.
Thirteen families?
Thirteen to fifteen families.
This is a teeny tiny village.
70 to 73 people.
Wow!
So teeny tiny.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And what they did was marrone, chestnuts.
Yeah, they cultivate marrone.
Okay.
Wow.
And they have... to make carbone.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
For, for the, for the fire.
And they sell the carbone, yes.
Okay, okay.
This is an amazing structure.
You can imagine what it was like when he lived here.
Yeah.
Yeah.
There's a million of these little villages all over Italy.
Little tiny villages, beautiful stone walls like this.
What happened here that no one... That it's abbandonata.
Abandoned.
Yes, Yes.
The people chose to live in the city.
In the city.
So they left for more, for better work.
For work, they prefer to work to make work in different... ways than chestnuts.
But not chestnuts.
But do you think its coming back?
The cultivation of chestnuts?
Yeah, probably because... Because in this village and in Fierenzuola, there are a lot of young people.
So that's a good thing.
Yeah, good thing.
(Italian music plays) Fosco, people who eat chestnuts, who know chestnuts, love them because of their flavor.
They're sweet, you know, Christmas, whatever.
But people forget that there's a lot of health benefits to them.
So talk to me a little bit if you want to about and we have some right here roasted on an open fire.
What's the benefit of eating chestnuts besides just flavor?
Yeah.
Yes.
The chestnut is very, um...
Nutrition and healthy food, very high level because is full of all energy.
They have carbohydrates.
Yeah.
Fiber.
Yeah.
And they also I was reading that they... Theyre completely gluten free.
Completely gluten free.
and that they help the brain to develop as well.
Yeah.
And it's very good and... for the small, the....
The babies.
Why?
The babies, during... because they... its is full of energy but Easy.
Easy, its not... Its easy to digest.
Yeah.
Wow.
So we roasted these over an open fire.
So I was reading that when you roast them they're a little sweeter than when you boil because you pull the water out.
Yeah.
So they're a little more sweet.
Yeah.
And chestnuts, so you guys know, help to lower cholesterol, prevent heart disease, help the brain to stay strong, because they give you phosphorus, keep you blood strong with iron, they're almost like, not almost.
They are nature's perfect food.
So we're going to make something with chestnuts.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Shall we go to the kitchen or shall we sit here and eat these and drink wine?
I guess I have to go cook.
Good.
Okay, we go cook.
After we eat some more chestnuts.
(Italian music continues) So we're going to make castagnaccio For those of you who don't know what it is it's from Cucina Povre, the poor kitchen. It's chestnut flour, rosemary, olive oil and raisins.
And some nuts.
And that's it.
It was all things that people had in their pantry.
And it was a nice way to make a dessert.
So I'm going to chop some walnuts while... Fosco and Roberto teach me how to make castagnaccio, I haven't made it in a long time.
So we need to start with this because we need to avoid any knotty, any knots.
Nuts, lumps.
Any lumps.
Right.
So you sift.
We sift all the flour.
Because there's no levener in this, right?
No baking powder, no yeast, no nothing.
No sugar, no salt, nothing.
Nothing.
But it's so amazing.
So it's like...
So you sift?
Shall I chop while you sift?
Yeah, yeah, please.
And do you want these... Christina, I love castagnaccio.
Me too.
I love, I love.
Well, did you eat it as a child growing up?
Yeah.
Roberto, you too?
Yeah, but, you know, I'm from the Valdarno so its not the same...
The same tradition as here up in Mugello.
I know, but as soon as I knew Mugello, when I was 20, I really fell in love first of all, with the trees.
Oh.
The trees are...
But, all the recipes, too.
Cosi, or do you want these more chopped?
It's okay.
Yeah.
Its okay?
So once theyre flat...
So you can see.
Yeah.
The flour you would have.
This is a whole flower.
So it's like crushed chestnuts.
Right.
On a stone mill.
Really easy.
So it's possible to have small fibers from chestnuts.
And we need to avoid that.
So.
So that the cake is smooth?
Wow.
All right, So that's okay.
Okay, so.
So now you have this nice, fine flour.
Now we need, like, a third of the water.
Okay, so we are on three fourths of a liter that is, in Italy, American three.
So let's put like one glass.
Okay.
And we start stirring.
Okay.
You see, we don't want to put all the water together because it will be difficult to.
Yeah.
So we do like a pass, and then we have it more liquid and we reach the point that we like.
So you guys can see there's no exact measures happening here except weighing the flour, weighing the nuts, because you learn to make castagnaccio like everything else, by instinct, people make it so often that they just make it go in the kitchen, make it in five minutes, it's together and it goes in the oven and it's a great dessert.
Talk about guilt free.
This is it.
I like it.
Guilt free.
Guilt free.
With the whisk.
Okay.
But we need to avoid bubbles because at the brick oven, the temperature is very high.
Okay.
And every bubble there are that these on the surface of the liquid will burn and give these a. Burnt look.
Flavor.
Yeah.
So if you're making your castagnaccio in a wood-fired oven, you need to avoid bubbles from mixing so that they don't burn at home.
Most Americans probably won't have to worry about that.
So you want to mix your batter until it's smooth: whisk, a fork a spoon, as you wish.
And the dough is rather, the batter's rather wet.
Yeah, we are close.
Very close.
Olio?
Fosco, what do you think?
Yeah.
It's okay?
Fosco, who loves castagnaccio...
It's important to see if the oven is hot.
No, that is a good point.
Which is a good point.
Because, in ten minutes... Maybe we should see if the oven is hot.
So we need a full glass of extra virgin olive oil.
Okay.
A full glass.
Oh.
The other thing is...
Ten minutes.
It's important.
(Laughter) Great.
Wonderful.
Okay.
Thank you.
A full glass of olive oil.
Its perfect.
Okay.
And then we need to rinse the rasin.
Rinse, or just pull out of the water?
Just squeeze.
You can do it that way.
Perfect.
That is perfect.
So the raisins were soaked in warm water, which makes them softer in the castagnaccio, but also pulls out some of the overly sweet raisin flavor.
I prepare the... Yeah, the rosemary.
You have the hardest job, Fosco.
Good for us.
So now we have fresh rosemary and Foscos chopping it really finely so that when it's cooked, it doesn't become like little sticks in your castagnaccio.
Amazing.
It's important that everything that is added to... to the flower, like the nuts, the rosemary, the raisin, stay under the surface, because it will burn and give these It's a matter of flavor.
You need, you know, these this flower is really rich in in all the flavors of the chestnut, the very long... smoke, smoking process to have it dry.
So we don't want to corrupt these precious flavors.
So Roberto is explaining that when you make castagnaccio from good chestnut flower like this, you have to make sure your other ingredients sort of sink to the bottom when it bakes so that they don't burn or change or ruin the flavor of the chestnut flower.
Okay.
So it's not much rosemary, you know.
I know also.
Yup.
And not.
Full.
Yes, please.
Everything.
So now the nuts go into.
Leave this to put the over the after that to... Ahh, okay...
So you hold back a little nuts and rosemary to decorate the top.
Yeah, Yeah.
Also, rosemary.
We are ready.
we can go to the brick oven.
With a pan or...?
With everything in the pan.
Ah, so we don't put this in and then go to the... To to walk with that.
All right, It's off to the oven.
(Italian music continues) Okay, yes.
So the oven is ready?
Okay.
So now, que facendo, what are we doing?
We need to put some olive oil.
Okay.
We need to be generous.
Am I doing this?
Yes.
More and more and more.
So were coating the bottom of this lovely pan.
Okay, now you're... Wow!
Now I have the pressure.
Yeah.
Dont drop the castagnaccio!
Its crucial, its crucial.
So yeah.
Come on the side of me.
So we're just decorating the top.
Trust me, this will be worth it.
Yeah.
Look at this.
Okay.
Okay.
This is very hot.
Here.
Si!
Wow.
That's perfect.
Okay, so how long in this oven?
How long?
It's ten, 15 minutes.
Ten, 15 minutes.
At home?
It would be maybe 30 minutes.
Yes, because oven is not as hot.
Not as a brick oven.
Yeah.
So now we wait, and soon... Castagnaccio.
(Italian music concludes) Wow.
Pay attention.
Oh, si.
It's very hot.
Oh, my God.
Oh, my God.
Let's see.
Guarda.
Look at this.
Wow.
I even got a little ash.
So very nice.
And there's our castagnaccio.
Fosco, Roberto... thank you for inviting me to spend the most magical day with marrone and being in Firenzuola, and making food with you.
You guys are the best friends ever.
So what are you waiting for?
Let's get back to the cutting board, and I'll see you next time on Christina Cooks: The Macroterranean Way.
Underwriting for Christina Cooks is provided by Suzanne's Specialties, offering a full line of alternative vegan and organic sweeteners and toppings.
Suzanne's Specialties: Sweetness, the way Mother Nature intended.
And by Jonathans Spoons individually handcrafted And by Jonathans Spoons individually handcrafted from cherry wood, each designed with your hand and purpose in mind.
Additional funding provided by: Additional funding provided by: You can find today's recipes and learn more You can find today's recipes and learn more by visiting our website at ChristinaCooks.com, and by following @ChristinaCooks and by following @ChristinaCooks on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
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