Chestnut soup with marjoram

Ingredients for 6 people:

• 450 g of peeled chestnuts
• 1 litre of vegetable stock
• 150g of whipping cream
• salt
• 50g of whipped cream for decoration
• Enough chopped fresh marjoram

Cook the chestnuts in the stock until they are soft, for about 10-12 minutes. Then strain them. Bring the stock to the boil with the cream and add salt. Pour the soup into the plates and garnish with a spoonful of whipped cream and the marjoram.

Chestnut and Alba truffle risotto

Ingredients for six people:

• A medium-sized onion chopped
• 400 g of rice
• 300 g of pre-cooked and chopped chestnuts
• 1 glass of white wine
• 1 glass of port
• 1 l of meat stock
• 80 g of parmesan
• 50 g of butter
• Truffle oil
• 50 g of truffle

Shallow fry the onion in the oil, add the rice and toast it well, then add the white wine and port. Leave to cook, adding the stock from time to time, then half way through (after about 10 minutes) add the chopped chestnuts.

At the end of cooking, add the butter and parmesan to give the risotto a creamy consistency. Serve with shavings of truffle.

Knödel with Speck – Classic deposited recipe

Ingredients for 4 people (8 Knödel):

• 250 g of stale bread. Use white bread (rolls etc) but into cubes of about ½ cm each side.
• 150 g Alto Adige Speck with its fat, cut into cubes of 2-3 mm each side, considering that if they are too big, the Knödel may not stay intact
• 2 eggs
• ¼ l of milk
• 1 spoonful of finely chopped onion
• 1 spoonful of butter
• 1 spoonfuls of chopped parsley
• 1 spoonful of chopped chives
• Flour, as little as possible, no more than 30 g
• Salt and pepper

Fry the onion in the butter until golden and add the speck. Mix the onion and Speck in a container with the bread. Beat the eggs, add the milk, the parsley and the chives. Season with moderation considering the presence of the Speck. Carefully mix everything together and leave to stand for 15 minutes or a bit longer. Add a bit of flour; the quantity must vary according to the consistency of the wet bread and can only be judged with experience; in general one or two spoonfuls of flour should be enough. The flour can be decreased or even eliminated, especially if using hot milk.

Form the Knödel by rolling balls of mixture with your hands of diameter about 5-6 cm.  Both during this stage and the previous one, it is important for the bread to be handled gently so that it doesn’t get squashed, but keeps its porous structure. The Knödel should not be wet or dry. If it is too soft, do not harden it with flour but with bread crumbs.

The Knödel (even those served in broth) are put into boiling salted water and cooked for about 15 minutes at minimum boiling limit.

Chestnut fritters

Ingredients for the dough:

• 1 kg of flour
• 250 g of butter
• 2 eggs
• ½ l of milk (and a bit of cream).

For the filling:

• ½ kg of boiled and strained chestnuts, mixed with two spoonfuls of pear jam
• A dash of rum

Prepare the dough and leave it to stand for ½ hour in the fridge.

Roll out a thin layer of pastry.  Mix together the ingredients for the filling separately.

Cut out rectangles of about 10 x 5 cm. Put a small quantity of filling inside and cover with another rectangle of pastry.

Fry in boiling oil.

Chestnut tartlet with seasonal fruit

Ingredients for 6 people:

• 200g of fresh or frozen chestnuts (not dried)
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 spoonfuls of honey (if possible chestnut honey)
• 120 g of ricotta (low fat)
• 150 g of natural yoghurt
• 1 spoonful of cinnamon tea
• 160 g of seasonal fruit
• 200 g of cream

Cook the chestnuts for about 12 minutes, strain them and chill them.

Mix the egg yolk with the honey, the ricotta, the yoghurt, the chestnut purée and the cinnamon. Add the fruit and then add the cream. Then put the mixture into the right shapes (moulds) and put them in the fridge (2°C). Once they are chilled, serve.

To garnish, you can add glazed chestnuts or a persimmon coulis. Buon appetito!