APULICA / FRUIT, VEGETABLES AND PULSES
Castagna di Roccamonfina (chestnut)
PGI · Fruit, vegetables and pulses · Campania
In brief
- Chestnuts of the Primitiva, Napoletana, Mercogliana, Paccuta and Lucente cultivars, sold fresh or dried. (Qualigeo — Castagna di Roccamonfina IGP)
- They are grown in eight municipalities of the province of Caserta around the Roccamonfina volcano, including Roccamonfina, Sessa Aurunca and Teano. (Qualigeo — Castagna di Roccamonfina IGP · Regione Campania — Prodotti tipici: Castagna di Roccamonfina IGP)
- It is the first Italian chestnut to ripen: it is harvested between September and October and reaches the market from early September. (Qualigeo — Castagna di Roccamonfina IGP)
- Since 1976 the Sagra della Castagna di Roccamonfina has been held, born from the town's old chestnut market. (Regione Campania — Prodotti tipici: Castagna di Roccamonfina IGP)
History and origin
Chestnut growing in the Roccamonfina area predates Roman rule and developed above all in the Middle Ages. A well-known popular story credits its introduction to Saint Bernardino of Siena, during the pilgrimage that in 1430 led to the building of the sanctuary of the Madonna dei Lattani: legend has it that he planted one of the first Tempestiva trees himself, near the convent on Mount Santa Croce.
In the following centuries the chestnut's economic importance is documented by works such as Girolamo Perrotta's La sede degli Aurunci, from 1737, and by local market lists recording its trade from the mid-nineteenth century.
From the early twentieth century Roccamonfina hosted, for a few weeks each year, the main chestnut market of the province of Caserta. Over time the market turned into a celebration, with a thanksgiving mass, music and folk dancing, until in 1976 the town council and Pro Loco founded the Sagra della Castagna di Roccamonfina. Today the chestnut is protected as a Protected Geographical Indication.
Sources: Qualigeo — Castagna di Roccamonfina IGP · Regione Campania — Prodotti tipici: Castagna di Roccamonfina IGP · Regione Campania — Prodotti tradizionali: castagna paccuta e tempestiva del vulcano di Roccamonfina
Area and method of production
The production area covers the entire territory of eight municipalities in the province of Caserta: Caianello, Conca della Campania, Galluccio, Marzano Appio, Roccamonfina, Sessa Aurunca, Teano and Tora e Piccilli. This is the area of the extinct Roccamonfina volcano, where chestnut groves cover about 2,500 hectares and in many villages are the main crop.
Chestnuts are gathered from the ground, by hand or with mechanical help, from September to October, within seven days of falling naturally. The groves are tended and pruned in the traditional way.
Fresh chestnuts may be treated in hot water or cured, that is soaked in tanks of water at room temperature for no more than ten days and then dried. For the dried product the nuts are dried on racks over a slow wood fire or in modern ovens. The low altitude, volcanic soil and warm, humid climate make this the first Italian chestnut to ripen.
Sources: Qualigeo — Castagna di Roccamonfina IGP · Regione Campania — Prodotti tipici: Castagna di Roccamonfina IGP
How to recognise it
The PGI covers five cultivars: Primitiva or Tempestiva, Napoletana or Riccia, Mercogliana or Marrone, Paccuta, and Lucente or Lucida. The chestnut is asymmetrical, roughly globular in shape, and medium-sized.
The shell is dark brown, thin and tough, with slightly darker grooves; the flesh is milky white, crisp and moderately sweet and delicate in flavour.
The Tempestiva owes its name to its earliness: it is the first to reach the market, from early September, and has a high sugar content. The Paccuta, named for its rounded shape, is a medium-sized nut grown above all around Teano, on the south-western side of the volcano.
Sources: Qualigeo — Castagna di Roccamonfina IGP · Regione Campania — Prodotti tipici: Castagna di Roccamonfina IGP · Regione Campania — Prodotti tradizionali: castagna paccuta e tempestiva del vulcano di Roccamonfina
In the kitchen
Its delicate sweetness and crisp flesh suit both simple eating and pastry-making. It is excellent boiled or roasted as classic caldarroste. Among traditional sweets it goes into castagnaccio and chestnut fritters, but also into more elaborate desserts such as Mont Blanc.
Dried chestnuts lend themselves to savoury dishes: chestnut risotto, soups with pulses, tagliatelle made with chestnut flour.
It keeps for a few months somewhere cool and dry. It is sold fresh, dried in the shell, dried and shelled, or whole and peeled; fresh chestnuts are available from early September to mid-November, dried ones all year.
Where to taste it
Roccamonfina is the heart of the area: a hill town on Europe's largest volcanic complex, its landscape shaped by chestnut groves. This is where the Sagra della Castagna di Roccamonfina is held, heir to the old market that filled the main square between September and October.
On Mount Santa Croce, the sanctuary of the Madonna dei Lattani is linked to the legend of Saint Bernardino and the first Tempestiva tree.
The trip continues to the other PGI villages, such as Sessa Aurunca and Teano, which is also home to the small wrinkled chickpea protected as a Slow Food Presidium. September and October are the right season to see the woods during the harvest.
Sources: Regione Campania — Prodotti tipici: Castagna di Roccamonfina IGP · Regione Campania — Prodotti tradizionali: castagna paccuta e tempestiva del vulcano di Roccamonfina · Qualigeo — Castagna di Roccamonfina IGP · Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Cece di Teano
Protection
- Protected geographical indication (PGI) — PGI-IT-02764 (eAmbrosia — Castagna di Roccamonfina (PGI-IT-02764))
When
- Harvest: September–October (Qualigeo — Castagna di Roccamonfina IGP)
- Autumn