Piedmont hazelnut

Noisette du Piémont

What it is

The Tonda Gentile's distinction is mechanical before it is aromatic: roast it and the pellicle lets go completely, where most hazelnuts leave shreds of bitter skin welded to the kernel. Turin's confectioners settled on it for that while stretching scarce cocoa with ground nut under Napoleon's blockade, and gianduja still specifies it.

In the kitchen

Roast at 150 °C for 15 to 20 minutes, until the skins craze and the kernel is straw-coloured all the way through, then tip them hot into a coarse towel and rub. Cold nuts do not shed.

Goes with

Dark chocolate Milk chocolate Butter Cream Coffee Gianduja

Same species

Cervione hazelnut Fresh green hazelnut Gianduja Hazelnut Hazelnut flour Hazelnut oil

In season alongside

Pecan Walnut Antep pistachio Bronte pistachio Charolais Grenoble walnut

Something wrong here, or missing? Tell us