Nudo Italia for the Holidays
Last year after returning from Florence, I introduced you to Nudo Italia, and their Adopt-a-Tree program which was featured last week as the finishing touch to the Today Show’s 2012 Gift Guide. If you’d like to go a little less grand and take a walk on the dark side, try Nudo’s brand new chocolate creama spread made with their fantastic extra virgin olive oils.
Aside from the fact they will make perfect stocking stuffers, Nudo’s dark chocolate fondente offer up a terrific opportunity to treat your holiday guests to a special, easy to make desert.
The spread comes in three favors: citrus, chilli and mandarin orange. All would be yummy as a dip for fruit and cookies. Using the mandarin orange, I took it a step further and made my favorite pancake mix {thinned out a bit to make them more crepe like}, spread a thin layer of Nudo between each and topped it all with a healthy schmear. They were finished off with some homemade three citrus marmalade and thin slices of kumquats. It was delightfully decadent!
I could see expanding the idea and making the layered pancakes dinner plate size and then cutting your guests cake slices. Either way, you’ll have happy campers at the end of the meal, or perfection with a glass of champagne to ring in the New Year!
The dark and delicious spreads, which all boast 30% dark cocoa, incorporate the company’s well known olive oil into the recipe. There is just a hint in the flavor, giving it a unique taste, all it’s own.
From their site: In the 1960s, Carlo and Alfreda set up a little patisserie in the town of Ponte a Egola, halfway between Pisa and Florence. It was a family affair, with the children growing up in and around the shop, so when Carlo and Alfreda were ready to hang up their baking gloves, their son Riccardo was more than ready to don them. His passion was always for the chocolate side of the business. Over many years he honed his skills and he is now well known in the region and far beyond as a skilled chocolatier.
Nudo has joined forces with Riccardo, and you’ll find the winning combination of small batch artisanal chocolate and flavored olive oils to be a perfect match.
Treat your guests, or better yet, treat yourself this holiday season. Nudo chocolate crema is available from their web site.
Disclosure: I was sent 2 jars of Nudo Chocolate Crema for review by the company. The opinions expressed are purely my own.
