The French are all over the hazelnut. Me, not so much. I cannot stand things that are hazelnut flavored and the real thing usually only passes my lips at Christmas when, A: I will eat nearly anything, well, not anchovies. And B: it’s in every goddam nut mix and impossible to avoid. But when I recently made the pork sugo, the recipe called for them, and I do what I’m told. Good Catholic boy. The recipe, which was about 14 pages long called at some point for browning your blanched hazelnuts. I didn’t read ahead and bought the damn things before I discovered the messy misery of blanching. Yeah, not doing that again. Once I had them blanched I had to brown them. Fair enough but after I completed the process, about page 7, I realized they are only a condiment on the final pasta and not one that is at all appealing to me. I mean, who puts nuts on their pasta?
I ended up eating them while I watched TV.
They weren’t that good but I’ll eat anything.
Nope. Not a fan of hazelnuts, either. Years ago, I very quickly got over a mild infatuation with it in flavored creamer (and with flavored creamer in general). Definitely one of those over-used ingredients.