Hol­i­day time always meant that when I vis­ited my Bampa’s house, there was a strong like­li­hood that in addi­tion to the typ­i­cal stuff­ing you might find, over­flow­ing with cel­ery, onions, raisins, etc., there would be a small dish of chest­nut stuff­ing for those that might enjoy it. Now, I was a snotty lit­tle kid who liked all things processed – Cool Whip, Stove Top and god knows what else and, if I had a time machine, I would go back in time and tell my Bampa I was sorry for not appre­ci­at­ing his culi­nary wis­dom. I’m sure he must have shaken his head a few times at my turned up nose and excla­ma­tions along the line of “Chest­nut stuff­ing – YUCK!” Like I said – I was a brat.

I attempted to give Chest­nut stuff­ing a try over the hol­i­day and, guess what, Giada had a recipe for Cia­batta Chest­nut Stuff­ing that rocked! It’s a stuff­ing that even my Bampa would thor­oughly enjoy. Giada’s recipe called for pancetta but I wound up using some bacon I had in the fridge. Also, as I didn’t have a 15 x 10 x 2 dish, I used two of my Le Creuset bak­ers. Cou­pled that with some great cia­batta from Whole Pay­chex, roasted chest­nuts from Williams Sonoma and some turkey stock – it was a dish that was not only great with din­ner, but bet­ter the next day. Chest­nut stuff­ing will become a fam­ily tra­di­tion, once again.

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