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A menu from Tuscany that features a medieval sweet, variations of which are also found in Umbria and Abruzzo and in the town of Ferrara in Emilia. Pan Pepato means Peppered Bread, and this sweet, which does include black pepper, is a kind of Italian ginger bread. The main dish comes from Impruneta, and it is said that originally it was slow cooked in the brick firing kilns of this town's chief industry. Brunelleschi brought the workers for his famous dome from this town and they brought the stew to Florence. A rustic dish with a strong pepper kick, unusual in Tuscan cuisine, it needs a robust Chianti and plenty of bread. Follow it with a simple seasonal salad.
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Pan Pepato Toscano
150g walnuts, 90 g dark chocolate chips, 40 g almonds, 40 g candied orange peel, 40 g raisins, 25 g pine nuts, 25 g hazlenuts, 25 g cake flour, 25 g sugar, 10 g cocoa powder, 1 tsp. nutmeg, a good grinding of black pepper, 100 g honey, 50 mls sherry ( originally " vino cotto" )
1. Place walnuts and almonds in hot water; drain when cool, then remove skins
2. Toast hazlenuts in a medium oven for a few minutes. Rub in a tea towel to remove skins
3. Chop walnuts, almonds, hazlenuts and pine nuts roughly. Chop the candied peel and place in a bowl with the chopped nuts. Add raisins, flour, nutmeg, sugar, cocoa powder and black pepper, then grate the chocolate into the mixture.
4. In two different pans, warm and melt the honey and heat the sherry through then add these to the bowl with the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly using a wooden spoon.
5. With dampened hands, form little loaves about 15 cm in diameter, place on a lightly oiled baking tray and bake at 180 C for about 30 minutes
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