The original version of Montblanc, meaning White Mountain, has two main ingredients: chestnut puree and whipped cream. It is sugary, delicious, and easy to make. This spoon dessert is typical of northern Italy and probably of French origin.

At home, it was a dessert reserved for special occasions such as Christmas lunch. And since it was rarely eaten, it was a real feast each time.

Unfortunately, it is rarely prepared at home and is hardly found in restaurants today.

Of course, cooking and cleaning chestnuts take time. Although steamed or frozen chestnuts (already cleaned and ready to use) shorten the preparation time, they still have to boil in milk before they can be processed.

Montblanc recipe reinterpreted with American potatoes

This time, I made an exception to use a product that makes the preparation of traditional Montblanc faster and cheaper. American white-fleshed potatoes, which turn sweet once cooked, bring back the memory of many happy days.

I remember the first cold evenings when autumn seemed to give way to winter after the summer of St. Martin’s Day (I wrote about this tradition in this post). Cold and short days beckoned people to stay home to enjoy its comfortable warmth.

Sometimes, my maternal grandmother would put some American white-flashed potatoes to bake in the oven after dinner. The temperature and the smell were both pleasant, especially for me, who would stay locked in the kitchen like inside a cocoon. With my Grandma, I waited, sitting at the wooden table, watching some old movie. It was American, too. It was one of those comedies with happy endings assured. The perfect company while we waited for a simple meal that seemed like food for queens to us.

The American sweet potato (white) is thus a food with a high density of memories, almost as thick as the flesh of this tuber. Looking at them stacked on market stalls, I felt a rush of nostalgia for these vegetables that we might call a gastronomic oddity. We know them as American sweet potatoes since that is where they come from, although they were grown in the 1960s, at least here between Emilia-Romagna and Veneto in the Po Delta area. At least, the white-fleshed variety. Between the 1960s and 1970s, they were trendy and then disappeared.

Dessert for special occasions

I recommend you don’t peel the potatoes. Only wash them under running water to clean them from the soil. Then, cook in the preheated oven for about 40 minutes. At that point, leave to cool before mashing them in a potato masher and mixing the pulp with powdered sugar and unsweetened cocoa. Sometimes, I add a few crumbled marron glacés to the mixture. They are sugared cooked chestnut, do you know it?

Finally, I whip the whipped cream with a small amount of mascarpone, which keeps it solid for a long time.

After a quick and easy job, you will have a Montblanc dessert suitable for any special occasion. Since American potatoes are unavailable in the winter market, at least in Italy, before their season ends, I stock up and freeze the cooked pulp for Christmas parties or other special occasions.

It is even gluten, egg, and butter-free. Using vegetable cream is also okay for vegans.

No one will notice the trick if you don’t say you made it with white, sweet potatoes.

Buona cucina, Monica

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