Autumn flours. And the quirky product

Plus 2 recipes: Mistocchine (pancakes) and Mont Blanc my way

Recently, I wrote a note on Substack in which I anticipated one of the ingredients you find in this newsletter, chestnut flour. A Substack user responded that it is difficult to find this kind of flour in the United States. And when it happens, it is usually available in Italian stores during the holiday season. Adding, if you have an Italian delicatessen close to home.

This comment reminded me of two things.
The first one is that it is not surprising you can find it in December since the new chestnut flour, at least in Italy, is a typical fall product.

The second dates back a few years when I was still running a small room and breakfast with my husband, just 4 rooms, a few kilometers from the center of Bologna but in an almost country location. Preparing breakfasts was my job, while my husband welcomed guests in the dining room with coffee and cappuccino. He was talented at making cappuccino, and guests loved my husband and his morning drinks. Anyway, once a guest, an Australian lady, was impressed by the taste of the castagnaccio cake (for those ho don’t know it, the Emilia-Romagna version differs from the Tuscan one).

She asked me about this sweet-not-sweet cake (called poor man's bread). She listened to the ingredients and preparation and said, "In Australia, we have many snakes, several crocodiles, but... No, we don't have chestnut trees. What a pity!” We laughed together of her kidding.

I shared these two anecdotes because I know that sometimes I tell traditional recipes with ingredients that are not always readily available abroad or have long and laborious preparations.

I am not a sadistic gastronome. I offer an authentic journey through the flavors and places of my region and Italy. I alternate between easy and difficult recipes and local and readily available ingredients. What I can't and won't do is turn a tale with an intensely local accent into a global one with no identity and soul. Here, you find genuine flavors, often little or less known than iconic dishes and ingredients, that are part of my life and the region and country where I was born and raised. I guess you subscribed to that newsletter because you are interested in this journey, even if you don't have an Italian grocery store close to your house. Authenticity is a form of knowledge that is priceless.

Autumn flours and quirky ingredients are on our way; let's go.

An autumnal memory

My autumn has always started this way, with a wild chestnut (castagna matta).

Among the most tender gestures of love I remember is Grandma's hand slipping a wild chestnut into my coat pocket and one in my underwear drawer. She used to bring it in her kitchen apron pocket.

That habit comes from an old Italian peasant tradition. It tells that wild chestnuts avoid colds and seasonal ailments. Are you familiar with this custom? Its origin comes from the property of this chestnut, which is toxic to humans, to soothe colds and asthma in horses.

The wild chestnut are the fruit from the wild chestnut tree and is not the sweet fruit of the chestnut tree. It is also known as the Guinea chestnut.

Autumn always makes me think of castagna matta, and each time I see one of them, I return with my mind to that simple gesture of care and affection. Don't forget the value of small things. They become sweet memories.

Fall flours

Autumn brings a lot of new flours: corn, chickpea, and, of course, chestnut.

Autumn means not only castagna matta, also new chestnut flour; it could not be otherwise since part of my family comes from the Romagna Apennines, rich in forests, mushrooms, and chestnut groves.

After harvesting and processing, between November and December, new flour arrives on market stalls, already packaged or sold by weight. Chestnut flour is fragrant and naturally tends to be sweet. For that reason, in the past, poor people used it to make cakes (without sugar).

Many dishes of the cucina povera of Emilia-Romagna were based on chestnut flour: polenta, mistocchine, castagnaccio, herb and chestnut cake, fresh pasta such as tagliatelle and maltagliati, and soups. That of beans enriched with a handful of dried chestnuts is an unforgettable gastronomic memory. The corn and chestnut one was also good.

Another product announced the arrival of autumn: American white-fleshed potato.

In Italy, it was a gastronomic oddity in vogue in the 1960s and 1970s. In the 1960s, farmers cultivated them between Emilia-Romagna and Veneto, specifically in the Po Delta area, very close to where I was born and raised.

I am connected to this tuber by memories as densely mellow as its flesh, which, when cooked, turns sweet and resembles boiled chestnuts in flavor and texture.

I associate its memory with the first cold evenings when, after the summer of St. Martin's Day, (12 November), the foggy and short days invited us to stay at home to enjoy its comfortable warmth. And that's what Grandma and I did, locked in the kitchen as if in a cocoon, waiting for the potatoes cooking in the oven.

I leave you with two recipes, one with chestnut flour and one with American white-fleshed potatoes (don't substitute with orange-fleshed ones; I know they are sweet, but the flesh is different, and the outcome too).

Mistocchine: sweet or savory?

They look like pancakes, right?

The recipe, typical of the Bolognese Apennines, was also widespread in Romagna. I write in the past tense that the memory of this preparation is now being lost.

The mistocchine is one of the simplest forms of using chestnut flour and recalls the Tuscan necci. They are round or oval-shaped small bread and, at one time, were one of the desserts of cucina povera di montagna. The mixture of water and flour took advantage of the natural sweetness of chestnuts, making them a sweet for those couldn't buy some sugar. Today, you can refine the dough with milk instead of water. Some also add a drop of anise liqueur.

The dough is neutral and involves no sugar (not even eggs or butter, so this is also a perfect recipe for vegans), except for the one sprinkled on the mistocchine once cooked. As I wrote, this recipe is disappearing, and considering that the dough is neutral, no one forbids using them in a new savory version to accompany a board of charcuterie and cheeses.

Shall we help the mistocchine live?

---

Mistocchine Recipe

for about 8 pieces
Ingredients

• 200 g of chestnut flour

• About 100-120 g milk, alternatively rice drink or water

• a pinch of salt

• optional, powdered or granulated sugar for dusting

Method

• In a bowl, mix the flour and salt.

• Pour in the liquid a little, stirring with a fork. Depending on whether the flour is old or new, it may absorb more or less liquid.

• Transfer the mixture to a clean, lightly floured surface. Knead with your hands until the dough is soft but not sticky.

• Roll the dough out with a rolling pin to a height of 1/2 inch or thinner.

• Using a round mold for cookies (7cm diameter), make 7-8 pieces.

• Cook on a nonstick pan for 2 minutes per side. When they change color, they are ready.

• Handily stack the mistocchine on top of each other to keep them warm.

• Sprinkle with sugar, powdered or granulated as you prefer, and serve.

• Or serve the mistocchine with prosciutto crudo and cheeses.

---

Mont Blanc, my way

Take a poor ingredient like a potato and make it shine.

How?

Using it to make one of the snobbiest spoon desserts.

Mont Blanc has French and Piedmontese origins. It is a classic of northern Italian cuisine. At home, it was a dessert that appeared on holiday tables. One above all: the Christmas table.

As a tribute to my childhood, I decided to replace the expensive and labor-intensive chestnuts with the flesh of these potatoes. If chestnuts have to boil and then be peeled, cleaned, and mashed, American potatoes cook in the oven. Then, you'll have to peel off the skin (nothing like the work required by chestnuts) and mash the pulp with the appropriate tool.

In Italy, these American potatoes, with white flesh, are usually available until November. To make this dessert for the holidays or a special event, bake the potatoes and freeze the cooked pulp. I have already put a small stash in the freezer; I plan to keep my mom happy this year (she loves this dessert and American potatoes).

One last thing. Unless you have a husband who ruins the surprise effect by revealing the cook's trick before she can do it, no one will notice the different taste from the original until the reveal.

(White-flashed potato) Mont Blanc.
The recipe

Serving 6
Ingredients

• 500 g of Sweet American Potato (white)

• 20 g of bitter cocoa

• 80 g of powdered sugar + 45 g to sweeten the cream

• 250 g of unsweetened heavy cream

• 50 g of mascarpone cheese softened out of the refrigerator

• natural vanilla to taste

Instructions

• The preparation of this terrific cake is straightforward: so breathe.

• Preheat the oven to 180C (356F) degrees.

• Wash the potatoes with their skins under running water to remove soil, place them on a paper-lined baking sheet, and bake for 40 minutes or until soft. Make the test with a wooden toothpick.

• Let cool, remove the skin, cut in pieces, and mash the pulp with a potato masher, collecting it in a large bowl.

• Add sugar and cocoa, mix first using a metal spoon, and then your hands.

• Line a glass bowl with foil with a diameter suitable for your chosen serving dish. Arrange the potato (solid) cream in the bowl, pressing lightly to compact them (you can also prepare them the day before by storing the covered container in the refrigerator).

• Place the metal part of the electric whips and the heavy cream in the freezer for 5 minutes.

• Meanwhile, arrange the serving dish over the bowl and turn it upside down. Lift the bowl, remove the foil, and set aside.

• Place 45 g sugar, mascarpone, and 1/2 teaspoon natural vanilla essence in a bowl. Cover with cold, heavy cream. Beat with electric whips until well whipped and firm, then transfer to a disposable pastry bag.

• Cover the cake with clumps of whipped cream and decorate with marron glacés crumbs or chocolate chips.

• Look at the cake, thinking you made it, be happy, and serve it. You can also store it in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

---

Thank you for being here. I hope you enjoyed this newsletter. If so, please share with those you think might appreciate it.

Ciao, Monica

---

Let’s keep the conversation going.
Write to me at tortellinico@gmail or follow me on Instagram.
If you enjoyed this newsletter, please click on the little ❤️ below ⬇️ and

New subscribers can sign up here.