Chestnuts are little candies provided by nature: so sweet that once you start you can’t stop. They can be eaten simply as roasted chestnuts (perhaps accompanied by vino novello), transformed into Mont Blanc dessert, used to prepare marron glacé, or to make the castagnaccio, a typical plain chestnut flour cake. As if we weren’t self-indulgent enough in eating them, today we thought we’d present a new passion, the chestnut salami, a typical dessert from Piedmont.
To tempt your taste buds…
The name of this recipe suggests a variation of the classic chocolate salami, the one everybody loves with crumbled cookies. Chestnut salami is actually a cake more similar to apple strudel: a thin layer of simple pastry dough that wraps a very sweet filling, which in this case is made with chestnuts boiled with vanilla.
Piedmont chestnut salami recipe
To make this traditional recipe, create a classic fountain with 1 cup (150 g) flour on the worktable. Dissolve ½ tbsp (5 g) brewer's yeast in half a glass of water and pour it in the center of the flour together with a tablespoon of sugar. Start kneading and continue adding water little at a time, until you get a soft and smooth mixture. Form a rectangular shape and put it in a bowl, cover with a clean cloth then let it rest for 2 hours.
Then, start peeling 1 lb (500 g) fresh chestnuts. To help the process of removing the tough skin, blanch them for a few minutes after removing the outer skin. After all the chestnuts have been peeled, cook them in water flavored with a vanilla pod until they are soft, but still whole (it will take about 30 minutes). Once they’re ready, drain and let them cool.
Take the dough and roll it out with a rolling pin until you get a thin sheet, to be stuffed with chestnuts (remember to remove the vanilla bean), and a tablespoon of sugar. Roll the pastry and give it the shape of a salami. Seal the ends, brush with about 1 ½ (20 g) melted butter and sprinkle with another tablespoon of sugar. Cook at 356° F (180° C) for about 60 minutes and serve with whipped cream.
