Chestnut

Winter in France means chestnuts, particularly roasted in a long-handled frying pan in the coals. Ever since my mother introduced me to the nuts as a child, they have had a special place in my heart. This winter melding of chestnuts, onions, and prunes is a common Alsatian dish. You can add celeriac to the delicious mix, or, if you like it a little sour, increase the vinegar or lemon juice.

This is one of my favorite winter Alsatian vegetable combinations, and a common winter vegetable dish of French Jews. It is best made a day in advance and left to meld the flavors. Serve as an accompaniment to roast goose, chicken, or duck.

This Tunisian dish, more commonly made with dried chestnuts, is more to my taste with fresh and even frozen ones. While Tunisia has been sympathetic to Western ideas, and although it was subjected to a massive immigration of French and Italian peasants when it became a French protectorate, it has sustained Arab cooking in its most ancient form. This beautiful and fragrant stew is an example.

This is a dish you can prepare well in advance. In Turkey, they may add a little grape molasses called pekmez, which you can buy in Turkish stores, but, for me, the dish is sweet enough as it is with the onions, chestnuts, and sugar. Serve it hot with plain rice or rice with chickpeas (see Variation page 193).

There are some excellent varieties of vacuum-packed or frozen chestnuts now available, making this dish very easy.

Legumes are a specialty of growers in L’Aquila, the big inland province of Abruzzo, and the pride of the region is the small, tender lentils grown in the mountain village of Santo Stefano di Sessanio. Since my recent visit to this remote, rugged settlement, I have had no doubt that it was in just such a place that this hearty and warming winter soup, thick with lentils and chestnuts, was created. These native foods, so good together, can surely sustain one through long cold winters in the high country. Unfortunately, the delicious lenticchie of Santo Stefano di Sessanio are a limited commodity and not available here. Instead, I recommend using lentils from Castelluccio in Umbria (see Sources, page 387) in this soup. Ordinary lentils are fine as well, though some larger types may need soaking or longer cooking time. Chestnuts, grown along the length of the Apennines, are also essential to Abruzzese cuisine. In season, they’re enjoyed in everything from pastas to desserts, and then, like lentils, dried for winter cooking or milled into flour. Though this soup can be made with fresh (or frozen) chestnuts, I use dried chestnuts, as is often the case in Abruzzo. These are available year-round and spare you the work of peeling. I also like the way they cook slowly without disintegrating, giving the soup a particularly nice texture. They do require an overnight soak, however, before you start cooking.

In many mountain regions of Italy, chestnuts have been cultivated and gathered as staple foods for generations. In Valle d’Aosta (with thousands of cows), it is customary to cook chestnuts and rice together in milk, a simple, nourishing dish that lends itself to many variations. Traditionally, riso e castagne was made as a light supper in the evening, especially for children before bedtime. The dish has a natural sweetness that kids love, and if you emphasize that quality with sugar, honey, or a swirl of jam, you have a lovely dessert or sweet brunch dish. It is just as easy, though, to take riso e castagne in a savory direction, as I do in this recipe. With a finish of fontina and grana, it becomes a rich-tasting chestnut-flavored riso or risotto, wonderful as a primo or as a main course. And if the same dish is cooked with more milk—or less rice—it becomes a comforting, creamy, and warming zuppa, which I am sure is much appreciated in the Alpine winter.

"The mark of a great pancake is that it can be eaten without syrup," says chef Travis Lett, who serves this dish at Gjelina, his Venice, CA, eatery. His version delivers: It's nutty, lemony, and ever so moist. Be sure to fold the ricotta into the batter very gently: "That way, when you bite into the pancake, you get these pockets of pillowy ricotta."

Here is a sumptuous side dish to accompany roast poultry, for the holidays or otherwise: sautéed mushrooms tossed with chestnuts, tender pearl onions, and thyme. Peeling chestnuts is a painstaking task. To save time, purchase vacuum-packed whole peeled chestnuts.

Minestra di porri e castagne Piemonte

Frying sage leaves is easy and provides a real wow factor. The sage and chestnuts make an ideal foil for these pillowy gnocchi.

Kids and adults alike will enjoy this lunch. Store this tasty salad in a wide-mouthed thermal container, use several Bibb or Boston lettuce leaves to wrap around the salad instead of bread, and pack the nuts separately in a little plastic bag for sprinkling. For those who can take the heat, add a splash of Chinese hot oil or hot sesame oil to the salad.

A big, beautiful soufflé with a festive chestnut flavor. You’ll need to bake the dessert right before serving, but you can make the soufflé base (minus the egg whites) two hours ahead, then fold in the whites up to one hour before baking.

It's an amazing phenomenon: Even after we push back from the table, feeling sated after the Thanksgiving feast, we want to linger and enjoy one last nibble. This time or year, chestnuts are clementines are an excellent pair for a final bite. And all that peeling makes this extra indulgence seem worthwhile—at least you're working for it.

Test kitchen director Ruth Cousineau wanted something very simple but very savory to add to her Thanksgiving green beans. Bacon and chestnuts turned out to be a perfect pairing for the vegetable, as the latter picks up the smoky flavor of the former. With the widespread availability of bottled roasted chestnuts, these additions are an easy way to make a standard side dish something special.

Anyone who swears by wet stuffing is likely to sidle over to the dry camp after a taste of this Thanksgiving classic. Beneath a crunchy crust is an amalgam of yielding bread, meaty chestnuts, and softened celery, apple, and leeks.

While eating at one of the coveted counter seats at Les Cocottes, Christian Constant's chic restaurant, food editor Paul Grimes was deeply inspired by the pumpkin soup, which surprised him with savory little chunks of foie gras waiting at the bottom of the bowl. Here, Grimes explores squash's more savory side by cooking it with a touch of tomato and providing that little bit of sweet surprise in the form of chopped chestnut. With just a dollop of whipped cream, it is rich only in looks and spirit—a spoonful will reveal how unbelievably light it is.