Castagnaccio

In Castelpoggio, the mountain village in the Apuanian Alps where we worked one spring and summer, Spanish chestnuts and the white flour (farina dolce) they produce when ground provided for centuries a basic diet. Polenta was made of chestnut flour and castagnaccio, a kind of rustic torta which has the consistency of a pudding and the aspect of a shallow cake. It used to be made in round shallow copper and brass pans, which were set in the ashes of the fire. In the last