Chestnut pudding

There are chestnut woods all over Elba. In the past chestnuts were one of the main sources of income for the people who lived in the towns of Marciana and Poggio, who picked the chestnuts so they could eat them fresh or so they could make the flour needed to make the sweet polenta. Both castagnaccio and delicious fritters , enhanced with wild fennel, are made with chestnut flour. Wild fennel is also used for enhancing the flavour of boiled chestnuts,
You can also make dried chestnut soup, roasted chestnuts, the sweet known as Monte Bianco and chestnut jam,

Ingredients

800 g of chestnuts, 150 g of sugar, 4 eggs, half litre of milk, vanilla essence, 2 glasses of Alchermes liquor, 1 glass of rum.

Method

Roast the chestnuts a little, peel off the skin and boil them in the milk and vanilla essence, and when they start to open put them through a mouli food mill.

Beat the eggs in a bowl, add the sugar, 2 glasses of Alchermes and 1 of rum, then add the pureed chestnuts and thicken by adding a little milk if necessary.

Pour into individual dishes and bake in oven for 30 minutes. Serve.

Recipe taken from the book "La cultura vien mangiando" by the Secondary School students in Marciana
Photo by Assaggi di Viaggio