Super-Tasty Chocolate-Orange-Olive Oil Spread from Central Italy
A limited supply of Cioccoarancia comes to the Candy Store
It’s been nearly 10 years since I first stumbled upon the remarkable chocolate hazelnut spread from central Italy that so many of us around here now know well as Noccioliva. It was on display at the Fancy Food Show. Of the literally thousands of “specialty foods” I tasted over the course of a couple days while walking up one aisle and down the next, the Noccioliva was near the top of my list of items I was sure we should bring back to sell at the Deli. As I explain regularly to anyone who’s interested, Noccioliva is essentially what that really well-known, widely sold “chocolate hazelnut spread” whose name you almost certainly know aspires to be but isn’t.
In other words, Noccioliva is our kind of food. A small number of really great ingredients, combined to make one truly delicious chocolate hazelnut taste treat. No artificial stuff. Just lots of Italian hazelnuts, a good amount of dark chocolate, a small bit of sugar, and some extra virgin olive oil. It has a complex and beautifully balanced flavor with a lovely, long but not overly sweet finish. You might well have already tried Noccioliva on the Roadhouse’s dessert menu or on the Nutty Monkey toast at the Coffee Company. Longtime Roadhouse Catering Manager Taralyn Brinks told me that her favorite toast is Noccioliva with bananas on Bakehouse bread. Seriously, this is 100 percent eat-it-by-the-spoon kind of stuff, which is, in fact, my preferred method!
By the way, a few weeks ago, we received a limited supply of Noccioliva’s newly available cousin, Cioccoarancia. If you, as so many people do, love the combination of chocolate and orange, you will not want to miss it! It’s essentially the Noccioliva so many of us already know and love, enlivened and enriched by the addition of orange oil and small, crunchy bits of candied orange. Man, oh man, is it tasty!
Both of these remarkable chocolate nut spreads—and the Pistachiossa, a very light and super-lovable pistachio and olive oil spread—are made by the small artisan firm of Colle de Gusto (“hills of flavor”). It’s located in the tiny town of Fara di Sabina in the region of Lazio, smack in the center of Italy. A lovely, small medieval village that was built about halfway up a mountainside, Fara di Sabina is also home to the Museo del Silenzio (Museum of Silence). This special place gives visitors a glimpse into what life would have been like in the monastery of the Eremite nuns that’s located near the center of the town. Anyhow, we get these spreads thanks to the wonderful work of Rolando Beramendi, the man behind Manicaretti Imports, one of our longest-standing suppliers. In a sense, I see now, he’s someone who moves regularly between different worlds.
Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Rolando is of Italian ancestry, as you likely guessed from his name. Like Tuan Andrew Nyugen, he moved back to the place that held his heart when he became an adult. He now lives in a lovely small apartment in the central part of Florence near the Arno River. He is also quick, as you’ll see below, to wander into new worlds whenever he can. The rest of us are the culinary beneficiaries of Rolando’s willingness to regularly reach beyond his comfort zone. Here’s what Rolando had to say about how he found the amazing Colle del Gusto spreads in the first place:
You know that I love “to get lost”! By that I mean I go into a city, a place I’ve never been before, even for a day, and walk aimlessly, just like in David Bowie’s “China Girl”: “I stumble into town, just like a sacred cow” and this particular day I was walking aimlessly around Rome along the Tevere, down towards the Tempio de Minerva, Buca della Verita … then crossed to the Circo Massimo and I saw a sign to a marketplace called “Coldiretti” (“straight from the hills”). So, I wandered all around, looking, talking, tasting, and just as I was about to leave, from the corner of my left eye, I see a gelato stand with a very funny logo, called “Colle del Gusto” … I saw some nice jars with “nutty” spreads or syrups or whatever you might want to call them, which they would swirl on your gelato. After I tasted it, I was blown away!
They invited me to come up and we spent the most amazing time getting to know each other. They are lovely people, and I am so proud to say that now they have a nice big warehouse space where they make all the spreads, and have employed many local people in a horrible time for humanity.
Cioccoarancia is wonderful spooned into a Cultured Butter Croissant from the Bakehouse. Great on any toasted Bakehouse bread. Delicious on Zingerman’s gelati. Even better still, some say, is spreading it onto pancakes or waffles! If you’re looking for a good stocking stuffer for a chocolate lover you know, or just something nice to perk up your own day, buy a jar or three today! Shelf life is theoretically long, but the practical reality is that it nearly always disappears quickly.
Spread some sweetness
