Typical of the Roero/Langhe region around the winegrowing estate of Casa Buffetto are the nocciole or hazelnut growing plantations. The hazelnut shrub was brought to Italy by the Romans and was improved. Today hazelnuts are still being planted on a large scale in the Piedmont. By the way, the hazelnut was an extremely important source of food before cultivation of fields bega in the early Stone Age. Grain then took its place. Nevertheless the hazelnut is a first class source of nutrition with many valuable substances.
The hazelnut has four times the nutritional value of an egg, has five times more fat (of which 23% is polyunsaturated fatty acids), just as much protein (12%), twenty times more carbohydrates, almost double as much phosphorous, twice as much calcium and a larger amount of iron. Although it lacks vitamin D, unlike the egg it contains 3 mg of vitamin C. Moreover it has three times as much thiamine. Compared to milk, the hazelnut seeds seed has twice as much calcium, twenty-eight times more iron, twelve times more magnesium and over three times the amount of phosphorous, five times more potassium and six times as much sulfur.
The hazelnuts are harvested in September/October. They are then sorted according to size (calibrated) and stored. The nocciole are offered at Casa Buffetto as raw products, as bleached granulate, flour or paste.
Nocciole from Casa Buffetto
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