Castagnaccio

Ingredients:

■ 300g chestnut flour

■ approximately 380ml cold water

■ 3-4 tbsp granulated sugar (the chestnut flour is naturally sweet; so it depends how sweet you want to make the castagnaccio, you can omit the sugar entirely)

■ 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

■ 2 tbsp raisins

■ 2 tbsp pine nuts

■ 2 tbsp walnuts, roughly chopped

■ 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary

■ a large pinch of salt

Method:

■ Preheat the oven to 180°C.

■ Grease and line a shallow cake tin 30 x 20 cm.

■ Soak the raisins in a little water for about 10 minutes. In a dry pan, toast the pine nuts and leave to one side. Then in a large mixing bowl, sift the chestnut flour together with the salt. Drizzle the extra virgin olive oil into the sifted flour and gradually add the cold water; whisk together to form a batter. The batter shouldn’t be too thin. It should be like a coating batter. Taste and add granulated sugar.

■ Mix in half the raisins, half the pine nuts and half the walnuts; stir to distribute them through the batter. Pour into the prepared baking tin and then scatter the remaining raisins, pine nuts and walnuts over the surface. Remove the rosemary needles from the sprig and scatter over the top.

■ Bake in the preheated oven for about 35 minutes. The top of the cake should have a few cracks. This indicates that it’s cooked. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely, before slicing. Serve with some ricotta or wine.