Company
Our hazelnut's journey begins in a magical place, in the rolling hills of Alta Langa
Nocciole d’Autore is the result of mostly manual labor, which allows us to preserve the magic of the place where woods, fields, deer, dormice and butterflies live in one environment.
Here our hazelnut groves grow with the same love and respect which farmers of the old days had towards their land.
Our hazelnuts begin the processing cycle lying in the threshing floor under the sun’s rays, which the hazelnut captures and encloses inside the shell and in the heart of the fruit like tiny drops of light.
Each product carries within it the memory of a distant custom, of a convivial moment of peasant life experienced on this very land
Thus, observing the old dilapidated farmhouse with the hamlet’s stone oven, or the old sharecropper’s house and the old wrought-iron bed, or even the ancient well enclosed in the intertwining branches of a tree, protecting its interior like an ancient guardian, we are reminded of the evenings that the peasants passed by sitting on a wooden beam in the threshing floor in the moonlight; they told tales of masche, while children ran among the hazel groves in search of fireflies…
Our commitment
Today as back then
We retrace the steps of the past to bring to life genuine products, just like those of our peasant origins.
Roasting
In the footsteps of the ancient wood-fired oven
Our hazelnut encapsulates a set of scents, aromas and flavors absorbed from those fertile soils.
To make these explode in all their intensity they used to use the old stone oven of the township, the one in front of the now ruined farmhouse; we use a “tostino” (toasting machine) which instead of a flame has a resistance: this, thanks to the heat it gives off and to the rotation of the basket, manages to give our hazelnuts the same roasting of the oven.
The result is a fragrant, tasty and crunchy hazelnut with the color of that sun captured in the fields and farmyard.
And then remember those peasants who – in winter in the ox-heated barns and in summer under the moonlight – spent their time telling ancient stories?
As they went on narrating, with hands tired from working in the fields, they relentlessly peeled the roasted hazelnuts blowing on the skin to make it fly; similarly our machine with a slow movement and a gentle breath of air peels the hazelnut revealing a slightly golden color, a round shape and a flavor that makes the Piedmont variety unique.
Grain and flour
Like the slow shattering of the housewife
Beside the fireplace in the old house the housewife, with the happiness and lightheartedness that only those who live surrounded by nature know how to have, crushed hazelnuts into small chunks that would decorate her cakes and other desserts; continuing with that slow gesture would turn the crumbs into flour that she would knead for her children; and yes, we too in our workshop get that same grain and flour by passing the hazelnuts in a series of rollers, which like small knives crush the hazelnut.
With other, even smaller rollers we reduce the grit into fragrant, dry flour, just like the housewife’s.
The precious oil
the one from grandfather’s stories
On winter evenings by the light of the lantern in the barn, the children listened fascinated to their grandfather’s stories about the war, and the days of famine.
When food was scarce and oil was too expensive to buy he modified an old screw press with two large handles, in which he pressed the hazelnuts, extracting a precious and very fragrant oil for his family and those of the sharecroppers.
Thinking back to grandfather’s stories that fascinated us in childhood, we devised a machine that like that ancient press slowly extracts oil from hazelnuts.
The products processed
As tradition dictates
And finally, those little tastes of sweetness so beloved by the children of in the past, which still remain simple and delicious today.
Pralines
the children’s favorite recipe
When winter arrived in the township with the first snow, to cheer the children’s afternoons and make them forget the cold and dew on the walls, a simple cake was prepared.
There were few items available in that poor house: the fire in the fireplace, sugar in the pantry, and nuts. From those few elements, pralines were born.
Mother melted sugar with a little water on the fire in a copper pot, and when she started smelling the aroma of the caramel she added in the hazelnuts, turning them quickly with a wooden spoon until they were completely coated with sugar; even today in our workshop we create these simple and unique sweets for children. In our praline maker we put water, sugar and hazelnuts to make crunchy pralines.
The dragées
sweet spell of melted chocolate
Grandfather walking back from the village of Murazzano, through the snowy woods, took with him a piece of chocolate; once home he handed it to his wife who melted it in a bain-marie; she then poured the melted chocolate over the hazelnuts, turned them over with her hands until they were coated and turned into small dark pearls Under the curious eyes of children.
So in the same way, in our bassina, we pour the melted chocolate over the hazelnuts, which become coated during the rotation and take on the perfect round shape of the Dragée.
When Christmas came to the township, a sweet spell was prepared to make Christmas Eve magical.
Pralines
the children’s favorite recipe
When winter arrived in the township with the first snow, to cheer the children’s afternoons and make them forget the cold and dew on the walls, a simple cake was prepared.
There were few items available in that poor house: the fire in the fireplace, sugar in the pantry, and nuts. From those few elements, pralines were born.
Mother melted sugar with a little water on the fire in a copper pot, and when the aroma of the caramel put in the hazelnuts, turning them quickly with a wooden spoon until they were completely coated with sugar; even today in our workshop we create these simple and unique sweets for children. In our praline maker we put water, sugar and hazelnuts to make crunchy pralines.
When Christmas came to the township, a sweet spell was prepared to make Christmas Eve magical.
The dragées
sweet spell of melted chocolate
Grandfather walking back from the village of Murazzano, through the snowy woods, took with him a piece of chocolate; on reaching home he handed it to his wife who melted it in a bain-marie; he poured the melted chocolate over the hazelnuts, turned them over with his hands until they were coated and turned into small dark pearls under the curious eyes of children.
So in the same way, in our bassina, we spray the melted chocolate on the hazelnuts, which during the rotation become coated and take on the perfect round shape of the Dragée.
The “Divine” creams
as in the memories of those sunny afternoons
The memory brings back those far-off days, when for children the sweetest hour of the day was that of the afternoon snack; the mother looking out of the window would call out to her children one by one, and they, running at breakneck speed through the fields, would compete to get home and greedily bite into that slice of bread with a thin layer of hazelnut cream; mother, with her infinite love had prepared it especially for them by combining hazelnuts reduced to a paste, sugar and a little cocoa.
Today in our laboratory, thanks to the ball mill, we passionately create a cream with the same simple ingredients: hazelnuts, cocoa, sugar, dosed to give the product exceptional spreadability and taste.
Even today, enjoyed on a slice of homemade bread, hazelnut cream remains a favorite snack for children.
The “Divine” creams
As in memories of sunny afternoons
The memory brings back those far-off days, when for children the sweetest hour of the day was that of the snack; the mother looking out of the window would call out to her children one by one, and they, running at breakneck speed through the fields, would compete to get home and greedily bite into that slice of bread with a thin layer of hazelnut cream; mother, with her infinite love had prepared it especially for them by combining hazelnuts reduced to a paste, sugar and a little chocolate.
Today in our laboratory, thanks to the ball mill, we passionately create a cream with the same simple ingredients: hazelnuts, cocoa, sugar, dosed to give the product exceptional spreadability and taste.
THE PIEDMONTESE HAZELNUT
TRANSLATED INTO MULTIPLE FORMS
Products
Just as the alchemists did, our company makes hazelnut products bordering on perfection from premium ingredients, quint essences of nature.