The Piedmont hazelnut

The Piedmont hazelnut, especially the one from Alta Langa, is renowned worldwide for its superior quality and offers incredible versatility in the kitchen, from flour to chopped nuts.

The “Tonda Gentile delle Langhe” variety is famous for its rich and delicate taste, a quality it owes to the particular climatic conditions and fertile soil of Langa, creating the ideal environment for its growth. Moreover, there are strict standards in both cultivation and harvesting that ensure only excellence reaches the market.

The hazelnut blooms in late winter, heralding the arrival of spring, and these delicate flowers will be the fruit that matures in the following months. The harvest takes place between the end of August and the beginning of September when the hazelnuts, wrapped in their brown shells, naturally fall to the ground. This is the signal, the perfect moment for harvesting.

After harvesting, the hazelnuts are dried: it’s beautiful to see them in barns, spread out like a mattress. It is a process that preserves their flavor and extends their shelf life by reducing internal moisture and preventing mold formation to keep the fruit’s organoleptic properties intact.

The hazelnut lends itself to a wide variety of uses in the kitchen: it can be transformed into flour (ideal for gluten-free desserts or to enrich the flavor of cakes and cookies); chopped, it adds crunchiness to ice creams and desserts; hazelnut oil, on the other hand, is perfect for dressing any dish with a touch of class.
Using it as the main ingredient, we can create delicious sweets such as creams and pralines.
Hazelnut cream, from the famous Nutella by Ferrero in Alba to the thousand varieties made by small local farms (each with its own unique recipe), is perfect both as a spread and as an ingredient in desserts and pastries. The pralines, both salted and in the sweet sandy version, offer a unique taste experience. Believe me! …they can become an addiction!