The Simple Chestnut, no more...

My encounter with chestnuts has been Roasted Chestnuts sold in night markets as well as during Ghost Festival celebrations during the seventh month of the lunar calendar. In addition, we also eat them in 'bak chang', the chinese version of tamales - sticky rice filled with meat, mushrooms, chestnuts, wrapped in two long leafy greens. However, my recent trip to Italy gave me a whole new respect for this little nut. In the town of Arcidosso in southern Tuscany, they celebrate the chestnut harvest every October with, of course, a chestnut festival! Called 'castagna' in Italian, this town and it's surrounding hillside areas are all filled with Chestnut trees, bearing furry little fruits with chestnuts inside. I tried the most wonderful chestnut dishes - chestnut pasta with ragu in a slow food restaurant in Montecucco, chestnut beer from the festival, and in our cooking class that night, we made risotto with chestnuts, Polpetta with chestnuts and amaretto, chestnut dessert with ricotta and milk and end the dinner with Roasted Chestnuts over an open fire, cooked in a traditional chestnut roaster!