Chestnut Ragoût with Bacon and Porcini

It's (Still) the Season

Chestnuts, rather than being full of oil, are moist, so unless they’re carefully stored — the ideal is 90 percent humidity and just below freezing — they tend to dry out and sometimes mold. The harvest starts anywhere from early September to early November, depending on the place and the variety, and it lasts about a month. In the last few years, I’ve been buying organic US chestnuts at a food co-op, although with their smaller size they take a little more effort to peel. Before cooking, chestnuts have to be scored, which is more easily done with a cutter such as the Tescoma (although a cutter doesn’t work on the smallest chestnuts). Packaged precooked chestnuts are good, but the flavor isn’t the same as fresh. We’re still in the season, and this is a full-flavored recipe. In place of dried porcini, you can use fresh, about 500 gr fresh porcini for four people — it’s almost a different dish. Where the dried porcini are more intense, mainly giving flavor, the fresh are an attraction in themselves. The smoke of smoked bacon is good but not essential, and you can use unsmoked bacon, pancetta, guanciale, or salt pork. The quantity below assumes the usual brined bacon; use a little less if what you have is especially fat or strong-flavored. Whole chestnuts benefit from a moistening wine, such as a light Côt or Cabernet Franc from the Loire Valley.