Piedmont, a region of Italy bordering France and Switzerland, lies at the foot of the Alps. It boasts vast forests, many of them chestnut groves, which produce some of the finest porcini mushrooms in Europe. Therefore, it's no surprise that several recipes combining chestnuts and mushrooms originated there in the autumn.
Pasta: 200 grams. I recommend long, slightly flat pasta, like tagliatelle.
Chestnuts: 150 grams. I much prefer frozen chestnuts to canned chestnuts, even those in glass jars (which are still better than metal cans).
Mushrooms: 150 Gr. Ideally, use fresh mushrooms (wild mushrooms, porcini, chanterelles, etc.), not button mushrooms! Otherwise, as with chestnuts, frozen mushrooms are preferable to canned.
Start the recipe 17 minutes before serving. I'm not specifying the pasta cooking time, as it depends on the type of pasta you use, so you'll need to factor in the water heating and pasta cooking time. I cook on a gas stove, and for the pasta water, I heat a little water in the bottom of the pot and 1.5 liters in an electric kettle. With this method, it takes me about 4 minutes to get boiling water in the pot.
M-17: In a sauté pan, heat the olive oil. Finely chop a yellow onion and a clove of garlic.
M-15: Add the onion and the chestnuts to the sauté pan.
M-12: Add the garlic to the sauté pan.
M-9: Add mushrooms to the sauté pan.
M-7: Reduce heat under the sauté pan.
M-5 : Add 20 cl of crème fraîche to the sauté pan. Season with salt and pepper.
M-1: Drain the pasta and then add it to the sauce in the pan, mix well for a minute with some chives and then serve with Parmesan cheese on the side (or Castelmagno, typical of Piedmont, but harder to find).
