Castagnaccio is a super famous Italian cake originated in Tuscany and was usually made in the late fall after the chestnut crop had been dried and made into flour. It is now found all over Italy.
It is a very simple, dense cake made with chestnut flour, olive oil, raisins and pine nuts that is moistened and bound together with water and then baked. The cake is commonly flavored with a little rosemary, although I chose to leave this ingredient out and instead used just a little chopped candied orange.
500 g of chestnut flour
About 6 dl of cold water
2 tablespoons of olive oil
A pinch of salt
Pine nuts
Chopped walnut kernels
Raisins (soak them in the water)
Rosemary leaves
Sieve the chestnut flour into a soup bowl. Add, little by little, the cold water, the olive oil and the salt. Mix very well. Make sure that there are not lumps in the dough.
Grease a baking-pan with oil and pour the batter into the pan. Sprink it over with pine nuts, walnut kernels and raisins.
Bake in a hot oven (180-200 degrees) for 20-30 minutes, until the cake gets a nice brown colour and a cracked crust. You can serve the cake warm o cold.