Cervione Hazelnuts

Working close to the border of France is one the biggest perks of that location and gives me the chance to go across the border to buy groceries. I especially like to check out the cheese (all the cheese…) and any products I don’t know yet. In the fresh produce corner in the supermarket I came across Cervione Hazelnuts. I saw that they were from the island Corsica, and since I had been on holidays there as kid many times, I was very intrigued. Still, I was wrestling with myself if I should actually buy them, because what are you going to do with a kilo of shelled hazelnuts, Adriana? 

Naturally, I told myself I’d figure that out later and bought them. 

On my way home I read about Cervione Hazelnuts, their official name being Noisettte de Cervione, and what makes them so special. The hazelnuts are produced in Cervione, the northeastern region of Corsica. This is a particularly good climate for the hazelnuts, as any fungal or bacterial diseases that would befall hazelnuts on mainland France are not present on Corsica. 

The harvest of the hazelnut is pretty small there but has been slightly expanded in 2017, which made them farther available than before, and which is why they probably made it to the Swiss border. 

What makes the Cervione hazelnut unique is the distinct heart shape and its light, almost beige, tip. 

What can you make with these hazelnuts? 

Basically anything you can do with other hazelnuts as well. 

You can eat them. They are nice to eat as a snack. I faced the first hurdle when I realized I do not even own a nutcracker. First I told myself, “yeah, obviously, you just moved and your household isn’t complete yet.” But then I realized that I had spent my whole adult life so far without a nutcracker. This has never seemed to be a problem until now. For baking it makes more sense to buy ground hazelnuts. And whenever I had to shell nuts, it was either peanuts or walnuts, where you get around the tool issue if you use a lot of force. 

If you don’t mind the effort you can use them for cooking and baking, either in their whole form, crushed or ground. I made a banana bread with crushed hazelnuts. It was delicious. The hazelnuts gave it a nice crunchy addition. Especially in this banana bread I noticed the difference to processed hazelnuts that I can buy in the shops here. There’s much more flavour coming through with fresh hazelnuts that you have to shell first.