[Sca-cooks] My OOP recipe experiment ... Pasta with dried chestnuts

[Christiane]

Well, I had the urge to experiment with my bag of dried chestnuts, so this is what I did.

First, I soaked the chestnuts in cold water overnight to rehydrate them. Then I boiled the chestnuts in salted water for 20 minutes until they were a bit soft. Meanwhile, I had sauteed two chopped onions in olive oil until they started to caramelize. I then added the drained chestnuts and sauteed them, adding sea salt and ground black pepper. I let the chestnuts brown a bit, and then had a "duh" moment, realizing I should have mashed the chestnuts after they were boiled. So I put the onions and chesnuts into a bowl, grabbed my potato masher, and went to work, keeping the chestnuts rather coarse. I then put the whole shebang back into the pan to saute a little more while I boiled up half a pound of angel hair pasta. I put the drained, cooked pasta into the pan, tossed it to coat the pasta, and added Parmesan cheese.

It was yummeh. :-) 

Next time I will mash the chestnuts before adding them to the saute pan, though! And I think I will boil them in chicken broth and then use the broth to boil the pasta.

Gianotta