Contents

1. Our Featured Recipe: Castagnaccio di Marradi

2. The Chestnuts of the Mugello

3 Marrons: What Makes Them Special?

4. Enjoying the Fruits of the Mugello

Our Featured Recipe:

CASTAGNACCIO DI MARRADI

Before we begin our discussion of the fabulous chestnuts of the Mugello, here is a recipe that makes wonderful use of this delicious Tuscan product. The town of Marradi , which we will visit in our upcoming issue concentrating on the Mugello, is famous for this delicious and unusual chestnut cake. Although non-Italian palates may not be used to sweets containing rosemary and olive oil, we think that you will enjoy this uniquely Tuscan treat as much as we do.

1/2 cup white seedless raisins or sultanas

1/2 cup Vin Santo or other Italian dessert wine, for soaking the raisins

1/2 pound Chestnut flour

2 1/2 Tablespoons olive oil, plus enough to grease pan pinch of salt

1 heaping Tablespoon sugar

2 1/4 cups cold water

1/3 cup pine nuts

1 large sprig fresh rosemary, coarsely chopped

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F, and soak the raisins in the wine until the cake batter is nearly complete. Generously brush a 9" diameter round cake pan with olive oil, and set aside.

In a bowl, mix the chestnut flour, olive oil, salt, sugar, and cold water to a smooth batter that is fairly thin and quite liquid. This may take a little more or less water than the 2 1/4 cups listed above, depending on humidity. Be prepared to add a little more or less water, and beat well in order to attain a very smooth, thin batter.

Drain the raisins, and pat them dry. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan, and sprinkle the top with the raisins, pine nuts, rosemary and chopped walnuts. Bake for 45 minutes to one hour, or until the top of the cake is crisply golden and covered with fine cracks. The cake is delicious warm or cold, and can also be served with the accompaniment of a few spoonfuls of fresh ricotta sweetened with a little honey.

THE CHESTNUTS OF THE MUGELLO

The Mugello is the area of mountains and forests that jut out of the northern central tip of Tuscany, and border Romagna. The forested ridges of this part of the Apennini are home to myriad chestnut groves and the natives are raised on a variety of chestnut-based dishes, ranging from antipasti to sweets like the Castagnaccio above. The trees around the town of Marradi produce some of the world's best chestnuts.

Until the 1980s, the once flourishing area around Marradi was mired in an economic depression. Many farmers had left the mountains and descended to the valleys to work in industry. Although the delicious chestnuts and marrons had formerly been the center of a booming economy centered in Marradi up until the end of the 19th century (a busy steam train had linked Firenze with these mountains, and the chestnuts, as well as silk-weaving, and an important electric power station, brought prosperity to the area), the depopulation of the mountains after World Wars I and II almost brought about the extinction of the marrons of the Mugello.

The chestnuts had always been the staple of the diet of Mugello residents; in fact, in the poorest homes of the Mugello, chestnuts and chestnut flour were often the only foods available. During the poorest times, chestnut flour was 10 times less expensive than wheat flour, and was thus the staple food of the isolated peasants.

The rail link with Firenze brought prosperity for the chestnut growers and processors of the Mugello; the fruit was exported as a luxury food to England, but the Mugello again fell on hard times in the twentieth century, and the chestnut farmers left their mountain homes.

But in the early 1980s, a greater call for diverse foods and a desire by many of those who had left the mountains to return to their property combined to bring about a resurgence in the popularity of the chestnuts of the Mugello. When many of the mountain farmers returned to their land, they found chestnut trees that had survived and flourished, and somehow miraculously escaped the lumber and tannin trade. With careful tending, the chestnut forests came back to full production, and today the Mugello produces chestnuts worth 4 million Euros a year. The luxurious quality of chestnuts and marrons is a modern phenomena: a kilo of chestnut flour now costs 15 times the price of a kilo of wheat flour!

MARRONS: WHAT MAKES THEM SPECIAL?

In 1996, the marrons of the Mugello and the Romagna Tuscana were awarded the Protected Geographic Indication, Italy's prestigious IPG . This indicates that they are something very special, and are only grown in a geographic area special for its history, customs, environment, landscape, culture and economy. Additionally, the Mugello DOP marrons are grown completely organically, without the use of chemical fertilizers or pesticides. But these special fruits are the marrons, and not the chestnuts. What makes them different, and why are they accorded such unique and valuable designations?

To begin with, any fruit of the chestnut tree is a chestnut, but only certain fruits are known as marrons. All marrons must look alike: they must be of the same size and shape, have the same glossy striped shell, and a rectangular, and not oval, hilium. The hilium is the delicate filament that holds a chestnut to its shell: a regular chestnut has an oval shaped hilium, but the hilium of the marron is always rectangular in shape. And, while the chestnut husk can contain up to seven fruits, the marron husk always contains only three. The marron is very easy to peel, and its compact white flesh is particularly sweet. Even though the chestnut and the marron come from the chestnut tree, only fruit that meets these exacting standards can be called a marron.

Scientifically, there is debate over whether the trees that produce these exceptional marrons may actually be a sub-variety of the chestnut tree, distinct unto themselves. While some botanists and arborists pursue this line of thinking, others feel that through careful choice, the farmers of the Mugello have created the differences over the centuries by carefully choosing to only reproduce the chestnut trees that bore the finest fruits.

ENJOYING THE FRUITS OF THE MUGELLO

Of course, we hope that your journeys through Tuscany allow you to visit the Mugello and enjoy its products first hand, but we have also found that a quick Internet search turns up several mail order sources for chestnut flour, marrons glacé and other products of the Mugello.

Whole roasted chestnuts are often preserved in a variety of syrups, including some flavored with Vin Santo or coffee liqueur, vino rosso, or honey. A paste made from dried and boiled chestnuts is available, and it is often used in preparing confections. This has a creamy texture and can be blended into cakes, candies, cookies, and even ice cream or gelato . There are sweetened and flavored chestnut pastes that can be eaten as a topping or filling for pastries, or spread on rich egg breads. Dried and roasted chestnuts are ground, sometimes in old-fashioned water mills, to obtain a lovely, fine flour. This can be used in our recipe of Castagnaccio above.

A famous Tuscan specialty soup is the thick and hearty Minestra di Castagna . We have seen a recipe from Mario Batali that one can make at home, but we think this minestra might be best enjoyed on an autumn or winter visit to the Mugello itself. The Mugello area of Tuscany can be reached by car from our villas near Firenze.

We hope you have a chance to pay a visit, and we will explore the Mugello in depth in our next newsletter.