Like
most people we know, we are also guilty of eating our La Molina
Gianduja (Chocolate and Hazelnut) Spread aka "the good nutella" late
at night, with a spoon, standing in our pajamas. But there are really many uses
for this outstanding ingredient that is made by the chocolatier Massimiliano Lunardi in Tuscany.
One of the specialties we like to make this time of year is the
Gianduja Italian Crostata. In fact our recent holiday La Molina
Gianduja crostata was repinned by the New York Times on their
"Your Holiday Dessert Pins" pin board.
The Crostata Italiana is a staple of the Italian breakfast table.
Italians are known for their morning sweet-tooth! We feel that the crostata is a truly inter-regional Italian dish and cumulatively, we have eaten crostata for breakfast in almost every region of Italy.
We find that this crostata is especially super-versatile for
winter feasting. We are constantly making crostatas throughout December
and January, we make one on the weekend and eat it over the next few
days. That's how most of our Italian friends do it, it's the kind of
thing that you do not have to eat "right out of the oven" fresh.
All of us at Gustiamo do the Gianduja Italian Crostata a little
differently. Beatrice (see photo, above) uses a family recipe. Danielle was inspired by her
20-something Sicilian baker friend in Palermo, Katia, who feels she has
perfected her mother's crostata.
The biggest change that she makes to
her mother's recipe is using La Molina Gianduja spread which she says
makes all the difference.
Katia and the other Italian crostata makers we
know don't use written recipes, they do it often enough to have it in
their heads. If you want one of our top secret Gianduja Italian
Crostata recipes, you are going to have to convince us on Twitter and Facebook to send them to you!
Regardless of which holiday food
is big this year, chocolate is an eternal classic. We prefer our
holiday chocolate in two forms: breakable and spreadable, and always
distinctly Tuscan.
But as it turns out he is not only our chocolate man. La
Molina has been developing a small but dedicated following in the USA
throughout the past few years. We are happy to see that American foodies
are embracing La Molina!
Let There Be Bite sums
up why La Molina gianduja spread is so good and as always, it is a
question of ingredients: "La Molina gianduia uses all-natural
ingredients: hazelnuts from Langhe in Piedmont, Italy, which are
considered some of the best in the world; sugar; cocoa butter; cocoa
powder; and vanilla". La Molina NEVER uses ingredients you find in commercial gianduia spreads and that are bad for you: soy lecythin, vanillin and palm oil. And Dallas Food says
that "At 55%, La Molina’s spread has higher hazelnut content than any
other I’ve seen in the United States... This produces the most powerful
hazelnut aroma and flavor of any of the spreads in this report. The
high hazelnut content also gives the spread a lush, velvety,
mouth-coating texture. Though a dark chocolate gianduia spread, the
hazelnut content subdues the chocolate flavor, almost to a fault. La
Molina presses up against the border between gianduia and hazelnut
butter. Even so, this is an exceptional spread."
We have fun with this chocolate, especially
the gianduja which we like to call "Nutella for grow-ups" but really, it
brings out the kid in everyone and helps to bring out the adult palate in the kids we know who love it.
I am a great fan of Taste, the trade food show that is held in Firenze, every year in March.
Where else could I meet such a large concentration of Gustiamo's producers? In one spot, for three days, we talk about future plans, prices, new products and orders... we have fun, we talk about family things and we share the most delicious gossip, too.
Our producers are our friends, we talk on the phone constantly and we love to see them in action at their places, but also at Taste, at least once a year!
The big scoop, this year, was that the Martelli family (left), announced they have chosen Gustiamo, Inc. as their only importer, in America! Wow, and thank you!!!
In the video below, the Fratepietro family proudly presented the olives from the new harvest, directly from their trees, as Andrea says.
Dario Meo, of Casa Barone farm, says: You should taste the Piennolo tomatoes and will not regret it! Try the Piennolo tomatoes on pasta, pizza or, naked, on a piece of bread.
Roberto Panizza, aka, the king of pesto, says Ciao America, try my pesto!
Nicola Bovoli of Vicopisano EV Olive Oil says the oil from the new harvest is wonderful but there is very little of it. Hurry up and place your order, now!
Gabriele Lasagni of La Nicchia Caperssays: Hi America! happy to be here with Gustiamo!
And other than all these wonderful, hard working producers, the Taste show is on a manageable scale in a beautiful spot.
Good way to end a day in New York on an chilly Fall evening: Il Cantuccio NYC bakery doors were open, welcoming friends and walk-ins for the first of a series of tasting with Gustiamo. Last night it was schiacciata+Gianduja Spread by La Molina. You didn’t need to know the address, follow your nose to the place on Christopher Street. Good olive oil smell of just-baked schiacciata and good chocolate aroma oozing from the open gianduja jars. Inside: it was a party! And yes, it’s an Italian art to make any occasion a festa, but it takes New Yorkers’ adventurous taste buds to appreciate with no prejudice the unusual sweet and savory match. Every one dropped their bags to linger in the warm space. We, at Gustiamo, live mostly behind computers screens; can’t pass up any chance to meet with customers and friends (now names have faces…) and we didn’t know so many live in the West Village. Rita Lintz, a New York artist who adds her creative touch to La Molina chocolates design, just had to turn the corner to join us and travelers from Rome who just happened to have heard and dropped by. Put it in your agenda for next week and the next. Every Tuesday, until the end of 2010. Every Tuesday, from 5 to 7pm, a tasting of a new product from Gustiamo paired with Lorenzo's wonderful schiacciata @ Il Cantuccio NYC. Stay tuned... mark your calendar and tell us if you are stopping by!
Camille visits La Molina chocolate, in Quarrata, near Pistoia. The saying, "Dulcis in Fundo", could not be more appropriate. This is Camille's last culinary destination in Italy. Thank you, Camille. It has been a privilege to read the journal your wrote for us. Your work was great and perfectly caught the spirit of our producers, our heros. Of course, Zac's beautiful pictures helped a lot, too. Grazie veramente. This is what Camille says about her visit to la Molina:
What’s a better fix for a sweet craving than chocolate? Nothing, in my opinion. But with check-out stands crowded with chocolate bars, how to choose? Well, it’s easy. As with everything else on Gustiamo’s website, quality ingredients and time-tested traditions make for a quality product, and the same goes for chocolate.
Chocolate maybe isn’t the first thing you think of when you think “Italy,” but La Molina is changing all that. Started in 2000 by the Lunardi brothers, who had been making pastry for years, they’re constantly thinking of new ways to reinvent the classics. What better example than their chocolate cactus, a new and fun take on the Italian favorite, chocolate Easter eggs. But maybe they are most unique in their business model: everything is made by hand using only the best ingredients. Unlike industrial chocolate companies, La Molina sources its chocolate from small plantations. The chocolate is produced according to a recipe unique to La Molina, and the amazing flavors and shapes are created after the chocolate arrives in Italy.
The day I visited, they were in the process of turning fresh oranges into candied orange peel, making the entire workroom smell like orange (Alessandro, who was wonderful and showed us around, offered us a few of the already-peeled oranges. Since they only use the peel in the chocolate, all of the employees take home oranges to their families. What a bonus!). The fact that the ingredients are fresh and are added by hand is obvious – the “gianduja” (hazelnut) chocolates taste like the hazelnuts had been freshly toasted, and the intensely creamy chocolate melts in your mouth.
La Molina chocolate is delicious, but it’s also beautiful – the packaging is modern and innovative, and is a feast for the eyes as well as the mouth. And they get what all of us chocolate lovers want – their chocolate bars are big enough to be satisfying, but they’re small enough that you could devour the entire thing yourself. You’re meant to get your hands dirty and enjoy the chocolate to the last bite, bringing out the kid in everyone. And that’s how La Molina thinks about chocolate – it’s a connection to pleasure, to bliss, and it should be enjoyed and celebrated as such.
All in all, from the beautiful packaging to the incredible flavors and textures, everything about La Molina is well crafted.
La Molina has arrived in our warehouse. All of it, several different SKUs, various bars of chocolate and the giandujaspread. It means we are getting ready for the Holiday Season.
Riccardo and Massimiliano Lunardi are brothers who grew up around their father's bakery, "Al Dolce Forno" in Quarrata, near Pistoia. Ten years ago, they created La Molina Chocolate and they represent a new wave of Italian chocolatiers, a blend of Italian tradition and modernism. The Lunardi brothers' have taken their love of chocolate to new heights.
The prices of cocoa has also reached new heights. It is now $3,390 per ton; it doubled over the last two years and it is more than 5 times more than in 2000. I guess it is now even more appropriate to call it "brown gold". Do not panic. At Gustiamo, only the quality keeps increasing. The prices of La Molina chocolate have not changed!
Not only Panettone! All Gustiamo's new Holiday Selections have safely arrived in the warehouse. Let me introduce some of them to you by having the producers introduce themselves:
This is Corrado Assenza. He, his brother Carlo and their wives own Caffe' Sicilia on the Corso in Noto, in Sicilia. Corrado is a world renowned pastry chef and his taste is exquisite. For us, he makes artisanal jams and preserves (a very well known chef just placed an order for them. Are we thrilled? You bet we are!) and the most addictive soft nougats with almonds from Noto (IGP) and pistachios from Bronte. Here is Corrado introducing himself:
And this is Massimiliano Lunardi, the chocolate man. With his brother and a friend, Alessandro, they founded La Molina chocolate. Beautiful chocolate in smart packaging. Their products are addictive: the gianduja spread is out of this world and the chocolate squares... Last night, Michael and I started and finished a full square with tonda gentile hazelnuts. Michael says I don't share well.
