There's something about Nutella

Nutella arrived in Germany when I was young and it made me a very happy little girl. Many a morning I gleefully skipped to a nearby bakery to pick up fresh bread for my Nutella breakfast. I loved being the first one to poke a hole in the tightly-stretched gold foil of a new jar; it made a most wonderful popping sound. I lathered the mocha brown spread on a crusty roll, and it felt pleasantly smooth on my tongue and tasted headily of cocoa and hazelnuts.

I've been thinking about Nutella lately and started reading on how it was invented in Italy in the 1940s by confectioner Pietro Ferraro. The catchy name was made up, from the English word nut and ~ella, the Italian form of indicating smallness, so it's a little nutty, but cute! All the browsing confirmed that Nutella has not yet gone out of stye.

Nutella to us kids was (and is) what peanut butter means to our American counterparts. It traveled with us in form of sandwiches on summer outings, where it melted and dripped onto our arms and we had to lick it off. We enjoyed paper-thin rolled up pancakes with Nutella filling; it was, in truth, a legitimate excuse to have chocolate. Not too long ago, I tasted a tweaked “Velvet Elvis” which is basically a toasted peanut butter and banana sandwich with an added thin layer of Nutella. Sort of a culinary meet-cute. I was sold!

On the home front, I reworked an OK-tasting almond tart into a Hazelnut Nutella tart that makes me happy in so many ways. A quick buttery pâte sablée (a fancy word for sweet pastry dough) is filled with toasted hazelnuts and a glob of Nutella, which brings out the exquisitely and uniquely deep hazelnut flavor. After it's baked, I spread on a thin layer of sweet-tart raspberry jam and finish it with a spirited drizzle of a lemony powdered sugar glaze. It does Nutella proud.

Hazelnut Nutella Tart

Serves 12

Bake at 350 degrees

Tart:

1 1/3 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/3 cup sugar

½ cup butter, chilled and cut into cubes

1 egg, lightly beaten

Filling:

½ cup butter at room temperature

½ cup sugar

4-6 oz toasted hazelnuts, finely ground

2 tbs Nutella

2 eggs

Finishing touch:

½ cup raspberry jam

½ cup powdered sugar, mixed with 2-3 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and sugar. Using a couple of pastry blenders or table knives, quickly work in the butter and the egg just until combined and press into tart pan one inch up on sides. Chill.

Toast whole hazelnuts in 400 degree oven until fragrant, 8 - 10 minutes. Using a clean kitchen towel, rub nuts until all the loose skin flakes off, it doesn't have to be perfect. Finely ground nuts in food processor. Beat butter and sugar, add nuts, Nutella and eggs, one at a time.

Spoon filling in prepared tart shell and bake 35 – 45 minutes until filling is set. Cool. To serve, spread with a thin layer of raspberry jam and drizzle with glaze.

Serve with a dollop of barely sweetened, stiffly whipped cream.

Goddess and others

America, without a doubt, must have the largest variety of salad dressings in the world. Many are not just simple salad dressings--they also have their own unique history. You almost need to take something like Salad Dressing 101 for the full picture.

The Green Goddess Dressing for instance was created in 1923 in San Francisco 's Palace Hotel for a famous actor who was in a popular stage play of the same name. The Caesar Dressing was dreamt up in 1924 by an Italian immigrant who lived in San Diego but opened a restaurant just across the border in Tijuana, Mexico to escape the dreaded prohibition. The Louis Dressing was most likely created in Seattle’s Olympic Club circa 1900 to dress Dungeness Crab, a favorite of Italian tenor Enrico Caruso, who was performing at the opera at that time. Thousand Island Dressing also dates back to 1900 and was named after the 1000 Island area between the US and Canada by a fishing guide's wife who dazzled her husband's clients with her salads.

Classic American dressings are as a whole robust and rich, flavored with garlic, herbs and spices, sometimes chili sauce, and made creamy by the addition of mayonnaise or buttermilk. They work exceptionally well with a salad of crisp iceberg lettuce, sweet and juicy cherry tomatoes, julienned carrots and a few buttery, crunchy croutons.

For my homemade dressings, I prefer them a tad less creamy but with a few splashes of mild vinegar and grassy olive oil. Lately, I’ve been using deep and complex sherry vinegar, tiny dice of mild shallots, a dollop of smooth Dijon and a few sugar crystals, sorry Charlotte. My dressing is inspired by Mark Bittman, who knows how to cook everything.

So then here is yet another one to add to the assortment.

Santa Barbara-Salad Dressing

2 tablespoons sherry vinegar

1 teaspoon mayonnaise

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

½ shallot, minced

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/4 teaspoon sugar

Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Whisk the vinegar with the mayonnaise and mustard vigorously until smooth. Add the olive oil slowly until the dressing emulsifies. Add shallot and sugar, whisk some more and season with salt and pepper.

This dressing is more than enough for a salad for 4 people. Any leftover dressing can be refrigerated for another day. I use assorted greens mixed with Arugula, 3 tablespoons of toasted pepitas or pistachios, 1 small avocado, cubed and a handful of tiny pearl tomatoes, cut in half. Toss the whole salad with enough dressing to lightly coat all the leaves. No dressing on the side!