Photos

An image of past sunday, in the old city centre of Brugnato, a small village in the Val di Vara, eastern side of Liguria, really close to northern Tuscany.

Chestnuts in Italy are a typicall street food of autumn season and there are hundreds of fairs in the villages of north and central Italy.

In the image people were roasting chestnuts in the typicall large grill.

Chestnuts can be dried and milled into flour, which can then be used to prepare breads, cakes, pancakes, pastas polenta, or used as thickener for stews, soups, and sauces.

One of the most common dish is the Castagnaccio is a plain chestnut flour cake, typical in the Tuscany, Liguria, Lombardiy, Piedmont, Emilia-Romagna regions.

It's a typically autumnal dessert, made by a dough of chestnut, water, olive oil, pine nuts, and raisins, and cooked in a oven.

Local variations may include other ingredients, such as rosemary, orange rind, fennel seeds, and other dried fruit. There are also variations on the thickness of the cake, and specific names are sometimes used locally to refer to such variations.

Castagnaccio is best served with ricotta, chestnut honey or sweet wines such as vin santo.