A 100-year-old company in Venice makes nougat with saffron from the Euganean Hills

A few years ago, Scaldaferro surprised us with their nougat with honey flavoured with damask rose and its nougat with honey from the Venetian lagoon. This year the Limited Edition is enriched with two new exclusive specialities. The saffron nougat and the lemon-honey nougat with candied lemon peel will enter the scene for the upcoming end-of-year/beginning-of-new-year festivities. Which Pietro Scaldaferro combines with dairy products, cheeses and liqueur wines.

Saffron nougat from the Euganean Hills

“It’s made by hot-mixing the pistils of the spice, grown by a producer in the Euganean Hills, with Sicilian orange honey for 48 hours, then adding the other ingredients: almonds from Puglia, egg whites from free-range chickens and cane sugar,” explains Pietro Scaldaferro, the fourth generation of a family dedicated since the beginning of the 20th century to sweets and almond nougat, the crumbly almond candy that has historically made in the Veneto region. The result is a slightly amber-coloured and very aromatic nougat, with its flavour rounded off by a citrus note. At the Scaldaferro shop in Dolo, on the Brenta Riviera, it is paired with a saffron cheese, Piacentino Ennese, and a Marsala Stravecchio Riserva.

Calabrian lemon honey nougat

The other novelty for Christmas 2023 is lemon honey nougat with pecans and candied lemon peel. It is a limited edition made with Rocca Imperiale Igp lemon honey, in its first flowering period in March, “when the bees awaken from their long winter hibernation,” Pietro goes into detail. - “It is an extremely rare honey in purity, because in the same period there is also the harvest of dandelion and other pollen species that usually alter its flavour. The taste is sweet at first and recalls the candied lemon zest that is also found in the mixture on a vanilla background; the aftertaste is reminiscent of an exotic fruit, on the palate it is extremely creamy, velvety, enveloping. We combine this honey with the Texas pecan, a fruit of Native American cultural tradition that is roasted hot in the laboratory. Its flavour is sweet, buttery and and unlike Italian nuts”.

A nice marriage between this exotic nut and the citrus notes and texture of lemon honey, which Pietro Scaldaferro proposes pairing with a sheep's ricotta, a caciocavallo and a Madeira wine.

Scaldaferro: the regeneration of Venetian Mandorlato

Scaldaferro is the king of the Veneto almond cake, but made in a different way. Not just because it is particularly good. Maniacally selected ingredients from the most virtuous artisans are used. The appearance is different from the traditional cupcake or stick shape: Scaldaferro's is made up of nougat flakes juxtaposed to form a plasticmalleable and vibrant ivory parallelepiped.

It comes in many variants, including particularly gourmet limited editions, ranging in all types of nuts, combined with rare and special honeys, spices and various gourmet amenities. A collection that year after year is enriched with new flavours with exclusive combinations of ingredients, always very centred, accomplished, elegant, capable of surprising and exciting.