Roasted Chestnuts (Castagne)

Roasted chestnuts are a tradition at Christmas. Called castagne in Italian, they are roasted with wine and salt. - See more at: http://cook123.com/recipes/Roasted-Chestnuts.html#sthash.jTTQIxHK.dpuf

Felicia Mohan Ciaramitaro grew up cooking with her mother and grandmother. She developed a series of how-to videos that demonstrate culinary techniques of genuine Italian-American home cooking. She is currently writing a cookbook based on her community's treasured traditional Sicilian recipes.

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TRANSCRIPT:
Chestnuts, otherwise known as castanea, are something you find on our table throughout the holiday season. They're simple to prepare. They're very tasty. And they're very good for you. Castanea can be found in your grocery store. They're usually in a big bin over by the nuts, potato area of your market.

They're very simple to prepare. We're going to just make a slit across, an X over the top of the chestnut. The chestnuts are very hard. The shell is tough. And you need to be very careful. I like to use a paring knife.

A paring knife is small. You have good control over it. And it's sharp. It has a little tip on the end. You can pierce the skin. The chestnut, you'll notice, is round on one side. And it has a flat side.

You're going to place the flat side down on a cutting board. You're going to use your paring knife. And you're going to use the point of the paring knife. You're going to stick it straight into the chestnut. Now again, it's very hard. We're going in. We're going to just draw our knife back. There's one part of your X.

Again, we're going to pierce the top, being very careful. And we're going to rock our knife back. So here you'll see, you have an X. It's a little labor intensive. You're going to go through each chestnut, and make that X. Set them aside. And then we're going to run them under some hot water.

When you're cutting your chestnuts, you want to pierce the skin, but do not go all the way through to the opposite side. You're really going halfway through, maybe even a little less than halfway through. If you go all the way through, the shell's going to crack. The moisture will escape from both ends.

And you're really just trying to open it up enough so that the steam gets in, and it makes the chestnut on the inside creamy and super delicious, and not dry. That's the key. At this point, we're just trying to rinse off any residue that may have been left on them from their packaging. And also, this helps to add a little bit of moisture into the cut.

Now, we're going to wrap our castanea up. So again, here we have a cross. We're going to take the paper that's on the very bottom, and fold that up first. Gather it together. Fold it down. Crease it. Roll it down again. Crease that. Pretty simple at this point.

At this point, we're going to take our bundle of chestnuts wrapped in parchment paper, and we're going to carefully place them onto a cookie sheet lined with foil, and pop them into a 450 degree preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes. The castanea has rested on the counter for five to 10 minutes now. Can't wait to see what we have inside.

Let's open it up and see if we're successful in keeping all that steam in. It's like opening a present on Christmas morning. Oh, boy. They're perfect. They smell so good. Popped open, soft inside, easy to peel. This is why we make that X. You can smell the white wine in the chestnut. That little bit of salt brings all the flavors together.

They smell just like my childhood. I have to try one. I can't wait. You peel the skin back. The moist nut-- there's nothing like roasted chestnuts this time of year. They are perfect. These are outstanding. You have to try them. Creamy, not dry at all, perfect texture. We were so successful.

Cook your castaneas this year in parchment paper with a little sprinkle of salt and some white wine, and you're going to have delicious castanea.
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