R E C I P E S

Cinghiale colle Castagne (Wild Boar with Chestnuts)

By Edward Behr

Maria Piera Querio, chef of the Locanda dell’Arco in the Alta Langa village of Cissone, in Piedmont, gave me this recipe. In North America, you’re much more likely to cook meat from farm-raised wild boar than from a truly wild one, and the farmed meat will become tender more quickly, about as fast as pork shoulder. In fact, most wild wild boar meat will never have perfect texture. The chestnuts sold in North America aren’t as reliably good as the ones in Italy or as easy to peel. Querio warns against too much clove. And she says: “Use good wine. It can be Barolo or old Barbera, but Barbera has a violet color — I use Nebbiolo or Barolo, which has a beautiful color.” The chestnuts slightly thicken the sauce, but you can thicken it a tiny amount more with just “a little, little flour.”

 

2½ pounds (1 kilo) boned wild boar shoulder

4½ cups (1 liter) red wine

2 stalks celery with leaves, cut in 1-inch (2-cm) pieces

2 carrots, peeled and cut in 1-inch (2-cm) pieces

1 or 2 branches each of rosemary and fresh sage (in any case, not the usual commercial dried sage)

1 whole clove or a tiny pinch of ground clove

black pepper

about 30 chestnuts

excellent, fresh-tasting olive oil

salt

 

Cut the wild boar into roughly 2-inch (5-cm) cubes, following the grain and division of the muscles as much as possible rather than cutting across them. Marinate the meat for 1 to 2 days in the red wine, celery, carrots, herbs, clove, and a grind of pepper.

Cut an X into the rounded side of each chestnut. Put the chestnuts in boiling water for 8 minutes, and remove the pan from the heat. Take 4 or 5 chestnuts at a time from the hot water, squeeze them lightly to loosen the husk and skin, and peel them, including all the inner skin, using the tip of a sharp knife to help if necessary. Try to keep the nuts whole. If the skin starts to cling as the nuts cool, return them to the hot water and then try again. Smell and, if you’re uncertain, taste any suspect chestnut; discard it if it doesn’t taste clearly of chestnut.

Remove the meat, vegetables, rosemary and sage, and whole clove from the marinade. Dry the meat, and brown it in the olive oil in a big, deep lidded pan over medium heat. Separately, bring the marinade to a boil, and skim it. Add it to the meat along with the reserved vegetables and seasonings. Lightly salt the liquid, and add a little more wine if needed to immerse the meat. Cook, covered, at a bare bubble for 1½ hours — assuming a truly wild animal; perhaps 1 hour for farmed wild boar.

Remove and discard the vegetables and seasonings, carefully skim the fat from the surface, and add the peeled chestnuts. Cook gently for another 1½ to 2 hours, perhaps only 30 minutes for farmed wild boar, or until the meat is tender. Serves 4.

From The Art of Eating Cookbook

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