World Nutella Day

Though I am still the champion of all butters that are of the Arachidinis variety I thought I'd join my blog buddy Michelle at Bleeding Espresso and her friend Sara at Ms. Adventures in Italy in celebrating Italy's favorite spread.

Today is officially World Nutella Day - the day in which happy peasants harvest the.... no sorry that's not how its done. A quick click on the World Nutella Day logo will take you to the true story of Pietro Ferrero's Supercrema. I was surprised how the recipe varies from country to country depending on local taste buds.

To start the festivities Michelle delivers her Ode to Nutella . Then after a break for a spoonful of Nutella straight from the jar Sara addresses the perplexing question of Nutella Virgins. I'm sure the celebration will continue througout the day as other bloggers feature tributes, recipes and stories of their encounters with the chocolaty-hazelnuty delights of their favorite topping.

I went as far as having it on my toast this morning rather than my normal peanut butter but I think I will resist a colleague's suggestion of a Nutella pizza for lunch.

05 febbraio - Sant'Agata

Nuts

I've had a major addiction weakness for peanut butter since I was a kid. Breakfast in my household has always meant orange juice, tea, brown toast and peanut butter - except on Sunday mornings when its orange juice, coffee and fried egg sandwich. And my allegiance has always been to Kraft Smooth - until recently it had less sugar than most of the other brands. None of this organic stuff, no Peter Pan or Jif - I find comfort in those two little bears on the green label. That's what should be on toast in the morning.

However finding peanut butter in Italy is a major problem. The breakfast - lunch and dinner - spread of choice is Nutella (a click on the jar will tell you all about it.) Created in 1940s by Pietro Ferrero, it purportedly has a hazelnut base and if their website is to be believed outsells peanut butter throughout the world. Its popularity is such that it's possible to get a Nutella pizza here - I would guess as a dolce course. I decided this week, in the absence of what god intended us to have as a breakfast spread I would give Nutella a try. I had real difficulty making out much of a hazelnut taste and the predominate flavour seemed to be sugar and chocolate. Not quite what I want for breakfast.

So imagine my joy when I found a jar of peanut butter in one of our local supermarkets yesterday.

350 Grams of Barney's Best Crema di Arachidi, made in Albany, Georgia - that's the state not the country.
350 grams of creamy peanuty goodness.
350 grams of breakfast nirvana for this morning's toast.
350 grams for only E 4.96 - that's only E 0.014 or CAD 0.021 (USD 0.02) per gram. I'll let you figure out what the jar cost in Canadian (or U.S.) dollars.

My peanut butter addiction weakness has become an expensive habit!

18 settembre - San Giuseppe da Copertino