Flourless chocolate, chestnut and rosemary cake (torta di castagna, rosmarino e cacao)

In a second-hand bookshop, under a pile of ancient magazines, my husband unearthed what has quickly become my new favourite cookbook: Mariù Salvatori de Zuliani’s A Tola Coi Nostri Veci. Its recipes are ordered randomly and read like a stream of consciousness. No photos. No ingredient lists. Just proscriptive prose along the lines of ‘a pinch of this’ and ‘a dollop of that’. But the recipes! Oh those Venetians recipes! Here’s one of its recipes for flourless chestnut cake, which I’ve adapted a little. It’s a classic autumnal dish – at this time of year, you can buy it in bakeries across Venice. I use sweetened chestnut purée and add a dash of rich cocoa, as well as a few sprigs of fresh rosemary. Chocolate, chestnut and rosemary, by the way, is a match made in heaven.