Montebianco (chestnut chocolate pasta with whipped cream and candied chestnuts) – Valle d’Aosta, Piemonte

Montebianco (chestnut chocolate pasta with whipped cream and candied chestnuts) - Valle d'Aosta
 
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This dessert was created in honour of the majestic Montebianco, visible even from long distances away in Italy and France. The ingredients make the most of local ingredients- their luscious cream from Alpine cows, earthy chestnuts and the chocolate Piedmontese are famous for. The chestnuts and cocoa are combined to form a pasta which is formed into a mountain and covered with whipping cream. This is much easier to make than it sounds provided you have a potato ricer. Candied chestnuts are a much coveted sweet which are difficult to make properly. Every year Santa brings a few for the bottom of our Christmas stockings. Those that are not eaten, find their way into this dessert.
For a quick and easy version of Montebianco, click here.
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Recipe type: Dessert (Dolci)
Cuisine: Valle d'Aosta, Piemonte
Serves: 10
Ingredients
  • 600 grams chestnuts (raw in the shell or pre-cooked)
  • 400 mlsmilk
  • 110 gms granulatedsugar
  • 20 grams cocoa powder
  • 30 mlsrum (can add up to 90 mls if you prefer)
  • 500 mls whipping cream
  • 80 gms icing sugar
  • 6 marron glace
Instructions
  1. If using raw chestnuts, boil them whole in water for 20 minutes and remove the shell.
  3. Boil the chestnuts together with the milk and granulated sugar for 30 minutes.
  5. Puree the mixture together with the cocoa and rum in a food mill or food processor.
  7. Once tepid, let the mixture cool in the refrigerator for at least an hour and up to two days.
  9. Get a serving plate ready. Add the mixture to a potato ricer and squeeze it through to form pasta onto the plate. Repeat with the remaining mixture, forming a mound onto the plate.
  11. Whip cream with the icing sugar to form soft peaks. Put in a pastry bag with a fluted tip and decoratively cover the chestnut pasta.
  13. Place a whole marron glace on top of the mound. Distribute the remaining marron glace around the base of the mound. Serve.