Celebrating Nutella!

Nutella and I share a very special relationship*.

No. No. NO! it's different from my relationships with Ben & Jerry, Jose and the others.

It's a deeper connection than the burning desire to bury a spoon deep within the jar, spin it around, extract it slowly and lose myself in the velvety luxury of a naked dollop of rich chocolatey goodness. It's more significant than that Zen feeling of spreading its smooth silkiness across the freshest bakery croissant, savoring the moment the two blend into rich buttery chocolate heaven across my tongue.*

You see, Dear Reader, Nutella and I share a similar genealogy, the same last name. In 1946, my immigrant grandfather had left the coal mines behind, spending most of his adult life employed by the Illinois Central Railroad. A half world away in the town of Alba Italy, my grandfather's namesake (and given the geography, likely a distant cousin, though we've never taken the time to prove it) invented a bread-spread of cocoa and hazelnut and then built a company to produce and market it. Sixty years later, Pietro Ferrero's grandchildren remain at the helm of an international organization employing over 16,000 people and still espousing his founding principles: using the highest quality ingredients and state-of-the-art technology to create unique confections and make them accessible to consumers.

Nutella debuted in the United States in the early 1960's; I came on the scene a few years later. We've kind of grown up together.

So when a couple of creative Italian bloggers declared Tuesday February 6 as World Nutella Day, there was no doubt in my mind that I wanted to participate.

So I pulled a jar of Nutella from my pantry. (There is ALWAYS a jar of Nutella in my pantry.) A bottle of frangelico. A couple of sheets of puff pastry from the freezer (I still have a bit of leftover puff pastry). A block of cream cheese from the refrigerator. The bananas and pears that arrived in this week's CSA box. And I began to experiment. I'm actually pretty proud of myself -- the product of my mish-mash of ingredients definitely doesn't suck.*

Banana Hazelnut Tarts

2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
4 bananas, sliced crosswise into 1/4 - 1/2" disks
1/4 cup frangelico
4 oz (give or take) block cream cheese
1/2 cup (give or take) Nutella
2 sheets of puff pastry

Combine butter and brown sugar in a skillet, stirring over medium-low heat until sugar dissolves. Add banana slices, and saute until they begin to soften and brown. Carefully add the frangelico. Continue to cook until frangelico warms and sauce thickens slightly. Remove from heat and set aside.

Preheat oven to 400.

In a small bowl, combine the cream cheese and Nutella, blending until smooth (I used a hand mixer.)

Coat a twelve-cup muffin tin with your lubricant of choice* (I used nonstick cooking spray, canola oil or butter would also work)

Roll out puff pastry and cut into 4 inch squares. Spread 1 to 1.5 tablespoons Nutella mixture in the center of each square. Carefully move squares to muffin tin. Top Nutella mixture with a spoon or two of the bananas.

(Since I've been feeling guilty about the mini tart shells I bought last fall and have only used once, I used them instead of the muffin tins. Either would work fine.)

Bake at 400 for 15-20 minutes or until puff pastry "puffs" and browns slightly. (when making this again I'll probably blind bake the shells first).

Cool for a few minutes before plating. Serve with frangelico sauce drizzled over the pastry.

*I can't WAIT to see the Google searches that land people on THIS post.

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