RICETTE DELLA TRADIZIONE
This chestnut pudding is a rather unusual sweet made with chestnut flour and enriched with pine nuts, walnuts and rosemary. This was originally a dish eaten by peasant-folk who exploited the chestnuts that were widely-grown in rural areas.
An exemplary dish resulting from this ability to combine necessity with invention is that of the "basotti": noodles cooked in a broth made from the bones of the pig (the last gift of this precious animal), arranged in layers in a baking dish and cooked au gratin . The pan, was placed on the fireplace with a tripod and covered completely with the embers to produce the effect of an oven, and left until the broth had been completely absorbed by the noodles.
This ingenious and inexpensive stuffed pasta dish was invented when there was little food available and is still popular even today in the Savio valley and throughout the areas near the Tuscan-Romagna Apennines. It is based on ingredients that are always available in the garden or in the countryside.
The word migliaccio indicates different types of dishes depending on the area of Italy you are talking about. The name itself, however, derives from millet, as this was the flour originally used to make a variety of sweet or savoury dishes, though this has now been replaced by flour obtained from durum wheat or maize.
When the spring came and the chickens started laying again the traditional sweets were prepared, usually with leavened dough, and placed in triumph on the Easter tables of every family.