CHESTNUT FRITTERS WITH PANCETTA, PRUNES AND PINENUTS

There are certain dishes that are really, really Tuscan and Castagnaccio is one of them, the traditional one is a sweet dish but I have made a savoury version of it as well. But now I have made my absolute favourite version, a great starter or finger food dish, chestnut fritters with a topping that takes the prunes from the sweet version and the pancetta from the savoury one, the pinenuts go with both. Chestnut flour has this sweet and slightly smoky taste that marries so well with the salty pancetta and who can resist fritters of any type? I certainly can't.



If you can find chestnut flour, you must try this and then put the rest of the flour in the freezer to make it last longer. And to make it even better, this is one of these naturally gluten-free dishes that make us all happy regardless of we have to keep to a gf diet or can indulge in whatever we want, perfect for my Gluten-free Friday series.





CHESTNUT FRITTERS WITH PANCETTA, PRUNES AND PINENUTS
10-12 fritters

100 g/ 3,5 oz chestnut flour
200 ml/ 0,63 cup water
200 g/ 7 oz pancetta or bacon, diced
8 large prunes, chopped
3-4 tblsp pinenuts

- Fry the pancetta gently until crispy. Let dry on kitchen towel paper but keep the excess fat to fry the fritters in. If you don't want to do that, you can use olive oil instead.
- Mix pancetta with runes and pinenuts.
- Whisk chestnut flour and water until smooth.
- Fry the fritters in the pancetta fat, one tablespoonful at a time, on both sides.
- Top each fritter with the pancetta, prune and pinenut mix and serve!