Hazelnut is used for the production of gianduia, the chocolate made famous in the mid 1800s by my favourite chocolate company, Caffarel, in the form of the gianduiotto, a rich Piedmontese chocolate shaped like an upturned boat.
It was then immortalised by the legendary Michele Ferrero in the mid 1960s, when he changed the name of the Ferrero ‘supercrema gianduia’ (a spreadable gianduia paste made by his father, Pietro) to Nutella.