Snow on the ground, time for Mondine – roast chestnuts

The winter has tried it’s best today to make itself felt with temperatures dropping 10-15 degrees overnight. What better time to light the fire and starting cooking one of the classic dishes of this area – the mondine  – roast chestnuts

So just what are Mondine ?

Mondine  are made by roasting chestnuts in a special steel pan, shaped like a deep sided frying pan with holes in the bottom. The chestnut are first castrate (castrated)  by having a small incision made with a knife cut into them, removing a small portion of the skin so that the chestnuts do not explode in the heat of the fire.  They are then placed in a pan which is held over an open fire.

The pan has a long handle,  about a metre long allowing a good distance from the fire.  As the skin on the chestnuts closest to the bottom of the pan becomes burned the chestnuts are flipped over allowing the ones on top to become cooked.  This process is repeated until all the skins are crisp and practically burnt off.

Depending on  which tradition is followed,  a small glass of red wine is also tipped onto the chestnuts before a final roasting on the open flames.  The chestnuts are then either tipped onto a table or sometimes into a hessian sack which is agitated between two people until the remaining skins on the chestnuts have been removed.

These are the mondine and they are now ready to eat.

As you can hear in the video below there was some music playing in the background as the chestnuts were being roasted. In fact the music is a track from the new demo disc by the Barga group NON SIAMO EROI

The track is called Un inverno in Garfagnana  – a winter in Garfagnana