Piedmontese Haroset
A different haroset from the land of Turin.
This haroset recipe is adapted from one sent by Nedelia Tedeschi, of Turin. She enclosed a little picture of a squirrel eating a chestnut, from the package of dried chestnuts she uses to make the paste. It was Passover, and the Italian store near my house had closed, so when I phoned around to try to find dried chestnuts and couldn’t, I used cooked vacuum-packed ones instead. The result was very unusual and also delightful.
Reprinted with permission from The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York, published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
Ingredients
1/3 cup (75 g) sugar or more to taste
About 3/4 cup (175 ms) sweet red kosher wine
1/2 lb (250 g) cooked chestnuts
2/3 cup (125 g) blanched almonds
2 hard-boiled egg yolks
Grated zest of 1 orange
Juice of 1 orange
Directions
Boil the chestnuts for a minute or two, and drain. Grind the almonds fine in the food processor, then add the rest of the ingredients, including the chestnuts, and blend to a paste.
