Five Ways With Chestnuts

When Roasted, They're The Essence Of Christmas, But Chestnuts Are Far Too Versatile To Be Just A Festive Fixture.

- Jacob Kenedy

My grandmother Ginny’s signature dish was quail braised with chestnuts, served on polenta or grits. She was Louisianan and had emigrated to Italy, and I suppose the dish — game, cornmeal and the humble chestnut — epitomised cucina povera (peasant food) in both her homes. It was delicious, and I cook it often in her memory.

The chestnut has long been a subsistence food for Europeans, Asians and Native Americans. In hilly regions of Italy, France, Spain and Portugal these uniquely starchy tree nuts were so ubiquitous on the winter table (for at least 4,000 years) that even today many who cook with them still have mixed feelings about them. As with offal in postwar Britain, it’s an aide-mémoire recalling hard times. But to so many others, chestnuts are a symbol of autumn harvests and a festive delight — like mulled wine or glowing embers.