Introduction:
Since the main ingredients of Italian cream of chestnut soup are whole chestnuts and not chestnut mass, it is important that you make sure the texture of the soup is smooth. Besides using ham, you can also color it with different additives: this is the sort of soup that is able to “handle” almost any ingredients. (If you leave the ham out, you will have a vegetarian meal.)

Ingredients:

• 80 dkg of plain whole chestnuts

• 12 pieces of carrots

• 1 small onion

• 2 tbsp of butter

• 1 tbsp of dried thyme

• 2 chicken bouillon cubes

• 2 dl of cream

• 4 thin slices of smoked ham

Preparation:
Wash the chestnuts and cook them for approx. 30 minutes until they become soft; then, chop them up a bit. Peel and wash the carrots and the onion; cut the carrots into thin slices and chop the onion into small pieces. Heat up the butter, and fry the onions until they become glassy. Add and slightly fry the sliced carrots and chopped chestnuts, then dilute them with 1.5 liters of water, sprinkle them with thyme, and boil the mixture. Add the bouillon cubes to the mix, and cook it on slow for approx. 20 minutes. Cut the ham into very thin slices, and whip the cream into a hard froth. Take the soup off the stove, and break it with a hand mixer. Serve it with whipped cream, sprinkled with ham slices.