Name: Tuscan chestnut soup
Yield: Serves 6 or more
Cuisine: Italy
Ingredients: 2 tbsp tomato concentrate; 1 kg unsweetened, shelled chestnuts (tinned, frozen, vacuum-packed or dried); 1 carrot, peeled and diced; 2 small fresh red chillies, seeded and finely chopped; salt and pepper; 1 bay leaf; 1 sprig rosemary; 1 sprig thyme; 2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped; soured cream or créme fraîche; 100 g pancetta or streaky bacon, cut into lardons or diced; 1 onion, peeled and diced; 1 celery stalk, strings removed, diced; 1 chicken stock cube (optional); good-quality Tuscan olive oil

Preparation info

Serves
6
or more

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Soho Cooking

By Alastair Little

Published 1999

About

Not a lot of connection with Soho in this recipe except that it’s going to be on the menu at Frith Street every autumn for as long as I have a restaurant there. While it is indubitably better when made with fresh chestnuts, the sheer labour of roasting and peeling them predisposes me towards either the dried packet type or the vacuum-packed peeled sort. Check that any processed chestnuts you buy are not in any way sweetened.

I have just thought of a connection with Soho: the roast c