40 chestnuts, roasted & shelled
1/2 glass of rum
2 or 3 tablespoons of powdered sugar

Take forty good chestnuts and roast them over a slow fire. Do not allow them to become dried up or colored.

Remove the shells carefully, put them in a bowl, and pour over them one-half a glass of rum and two or three tablespoons of powdered sugar.

Set fire to the rum and baste the chestnuts constantly as long as the rum will burn, turning the chestnuts about so they will absorb the rum and become colored.

The recipe was first published "Simple Italian Cookery" by Antonia Isola (New York: Harpers Brothers, 1912). For the complete copyright-free text visit www.archive.org..... Poem on plate: in French: Je marche a toi/ je titube a toi/ Je brule de toi. English translation: I walk towards, I stagger towards you/ I am burning for you.

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