A special Tuscan recipe made with only water, chestnut flour and egg, necci are essentially crepes or thin pancakes made with chestnut flour. Naturally sweet with a nutty chestnut flavor, they're traditionally stuffed with a special ricotta cheese filling. Drizzled with chestnut honey they make a breakfast or brunch people will rave about.
Chef's Tips
- The most important thing is making sure that your chestnut flour is very fine. If you bought chestnut flour online it's likely very smooth and uniform.
- If you made your own chestnut flour it will be slightly coarser and you may need to add an additional ¼ cup of water as my batter has been thick using homemade flour. You can also use one part all purpose flour to three parts chestnut flour to make sure they don't become brittle and fall apart.
- Don't be skeptical of the ricotta cheese filling-it's the perfect thing to fill the crepes with. However, cheap ricotta cheese is just that, and splurging a few dollars more for high quality ricotta like Calabro brand, or even Belgioso ricotta makes a big difference in the end result.
Ricotta-Chestnut Filling
You can simply serve the crepes with melted butter and maple syrup or chestnut honey, but they're traditionally served with a ricotta cheese filling. Here's how to make a simple one I like with roasted chestnuts, orange or lemon zest, and chestnut honey.
It's important to use a high-quality ricotta cheese here. I like Belgioso brand ricotta, but my favorite is the hand-packed Calabro ricotta. It's expensive, but it's worth it and the texture is smooth and creamy. Cheap ricotta cheese is granular and reminds me of cottage cheese.
How to Make Chestnut Pancakes
If you've ever made crepes the process is exactly the same for necci. Put the chestnut flour, egg, and milk in a blender with a pinch of salt and a spoonful of melted butter.
Puree the mixture until very smooth, then pour it into a bowl and allow it to rest for 20-30 minutes before cooking.
When cooking the crepes you'll want an 8-inch non-stick pan. I use a thin carbon steel pan. You can also use a larger pan or a special crepe griddle to make larger pancakes.
Get the pan hot and make sure it's lightly greased. Pour in a ¼ cup of batter at a time into the pan, swirling it to make a round, flat crepe. Cook the crepe until the top side no longer shows any liquid spots, then carefully flip with a spatula and "kiss" the other side for just a second to finish cooking.
Transfer the finished crepes to a plate as you work, laying them in a stack to prevent them from drying out.
When all the batter has been used, wrap the plate in cling film and cool, reserving until needed. To serve the crepes, gently reheat to make them pliable, stuff with the filling, drizzle with honey a few roasted or candied chestnuts and serve.
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Necci: Tuscan Chestnut FLour Pancakes / Crepes
Equipment
- 8 inch crepe pan or nonstick pan
- Blender
- Spatula
Ingredients
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 cup chestnut flour *see note
- Good pinch of kosher salt ¼ teaspoon
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon melted butter
- Cooking oil for greasing the pan
Ricotta-Chestnut Filling
- ½ Cup chopped roasted chestnuts
- 2 Cups High quality ricotta cheese
- 1 Whole Fresh nutmeg for grating
- 1 Pinch Kosher salt
- 1 Fresh Lemon or Orange for zesting, to taste
- 2 Tbsp Chestnut honey plus extra for garnishing
Instructions
Necci Pancakes
- Combine all ingredients in a blender and puree until smooth. Allow the batter to rest for 20 minutes or overnight before cooking.
- Wipe an 8 inch non-stick pan with a greased paper towel. There shouldn’t be visible oil pooling in the pan at all-you just want a thin coating. If there’s too much oil the pancakes won’t cook correctly.
- Heat the pan until hot and beginning to smoke. Turn the heat to medium and add ¼ cup of the chestnut batter, swirling the pan to help the batter coat the bottom and make circular shape. This is the exact same process as making crepes.
- When the top is just barely set, gently flip the necci and cook for a second or two on the other side, then transfer to a plate and repeat the process until all the batter is used.
- Wrap the pancakes on the plate with cling film to prevent them from drying out. From here the pancakes can be made ahead of time or even frozen, although freezing can make them brittle.
Ricotta-Chestnut Filling
- Mix all ingredients in a mixing bowl, adding a few scrapes of lemon or orange zest and a little nutmeg to taste. Double check the seasoning and adjust until it tastes good to you.
- Put 3 tablespoons of filling in each warm pancake, fold them over, drizzle with chestnut honey and serve.
Richard A Stevens
I made this using homemade chestnut flour and the crepes taste fantastic, however, they are pretty brittle. I can't add wheat flour due to an allergy so I'm thinking another egg and/or some xanthan gum could fix the brittle aspect. What do you think?
Alan Bergo
The traditional crepes contain no wheat flour. finer the flour is, the less delicate the crepes will be. You can always add 25 % GF AP. I would also make sure you’re sifting the flour as the coarseness is what can make them brittle here. Crepes can be made from any GF flour since they contain egg. I would not add xanthan gum personally. If you buy some commercial chestnut flour they’re just as easy as regular crepes too since the flour is so fine.
Richard Stevens
Thanks... I'll run my flour through a Wondermill and make it finer and give it another try!
Alan Bergo
Sounds good. Then as an extra safeguard, allow the batter to rest for an hour or so. Dried chestnuts are hard as rocks so allowing additional time for the particles to hydrate should help too.
Richard Stevens
After running my chestnut flour through the Wondermill, I made the crepes at the NC Wild Food Festival this spring. The crepes turned out perfect! I used a goumi jam/cream cheese/sugar filling that was to die for!
Alan Bergo
Glad it worked out Richard.