The winter has tried it’s best today to make itself felt with temperatures dropping 10-15 degrees overnight. What better time to light the fire and starting cooking one of the classic dishes of this area -- the mondine -- roast chestnuts
So just what are Mondine ?
Mondine are made by roasting chestnuts in a special steel pan, shaped like a deep sided frying pan with holes in the bottom. The chestnut are first castrate (castrated) by having a small incision made with a knife cut into them, removing a small portion of the skin so that the chestnuts do not explode in the heat of the fire. They are then placed in a pan which is held over an open fire.
The pan has a long handle, about a metre long allowing a good distance from the fire. As the skin on the chestnuts closest to the bottom of the pan becomes burned the chestnuts are flipped over allowing the ones on top to become cooked. This process is repeated until all the skins are crisp and practically burnt off.
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Depending on which tradition is followed, a small glass of red wine is also tipped onto the chestnuts before a final roasting on the open flames. The chestnuts are then either tipped onto a table or sometimes into a hessian sack which is agitated between two people until the remaining skins on the chestnuts have been removed.
These are the mondine and they are now ready to eat.
As you can hear in the video below there was some music playing in the background as the chestnuts were being roasted. In fact the music is a track from the new demo disc by the Barga group NON SIAMO EROI
The track is called Un inverno in Garfagnana -- a winter in Garfagnana
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We first started writing about this band back in 2007 -- since then they have been through some radical line up changes but the core members, Lorenzo Lanciani and Derek Franchini are still there making music today -- their site can be seen here
giornaledibarganews 2007 -- Lorenzo – lead singer and guitar, Derek on lead guitar, Angelo on keyboards and Artie Matthew on drums made up the Noi Siamo Eroi band this evening who played their first gig in front of the Barga public at the Altana restaurant.
Moving, energetic stuff from the boys as they played a mixed set in front of an enthusiastic audience.
Lorenzo, well known in the area for his trumpet playing has just added his voice, guitar and large amounts charisma to the instruments that he has at his disposal.
Barga is known as Barga art city, but really maybe the musicians should stand up and be counted as it seems they they are the only artists really pushing and shoving to be heard. The visual artists all seem to be sleeping.
Non Siamo Eroi 2007 | Gladiatore 2007 | Lake Angels 2007 |
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Good track, I enjoyed that!