There dried fruit it lengthens life, it is certain, and for this we should eat it every day. We can, for example, munch her during working hours, especially in the cold season, as a healthy anti-stress. Or transform it in 'butter'.
Already. If the American peanut butter it has now appeared on the shelves of our supermarkets, the home version is very simple and allows us to choose the nuts we prefer: from hazelnuts (here how to choose them best) walnuts (much loved by Italians), or the most exotic macadamia nuts or Brazilian nuts.
Finally, there are of course almonds. And it is precisely with this delicious delicate and local fruit that has prepared it for us Chef Francesco Paldera, ambassador of the kitchen Puglia for the Puglia region, Italian cuisine for Ice and author of various books, including "Vegetarian Puglia". 
Chef Paldera currently works at the Torritto Almond Slow Food Presidium "Masseria Pilapalucci", historical structure and organic agricultural olive and almonds that rises in an agricultural landscape of singular beauty, halfway between Bari and Matera.
"If we want to prepare a really good and healthy almond butter, we have to starting from an almond cultivated with good practices agronomic and sustainable – says the Chef – as the Toritto almond Slow Food Presidium, which guarantees nutritional and organoleptic characteristics of excellence, among which the now famous aftertaste of butter which makes it ideal for confectionery and haute cuisine ".
Here is the recipe.
"Almond butter" (about 500 gr.)
Use gr. 500 of almonds with peel with no more than 12 months from the harvest. Soak in cold water and refrigerate for 24 hours. The following day, peel the almonds and blend with very little water, until a cream is obtained.
You get a fantastic emulsion that will leave to rest for 20 minutes before its consumption raw on a slice of toasted bread or on a fish grilled, vegetables or meats. Its combination will be fantastic and healthy.
To make these 'creams' of dried fruit still more buttery, you can also add or a little 'real butter, or (better!) a little' d 'oil of the same fruit, possibly raw: for example if we are preparing the 'butter' of hazelnuts, we can add a little 'hazelnut oil in the mince (delicious also the savory version, which is obtained by adding a pinch of sea salt).
"To be considered a real butter it is necessary to have at least 99.3% of fat and therefore the oils from dried fruits to become butters they must be hydrogenated… which actually becomes one chemically transformed product (and as we know hydrogenated fats are not good for health) – he explains Andrea Parodi, owner of Parodi Nutra, company that draws oil in a natural way from oil seeds and organic dried fruit, like the precious oil of Ligurian hazelnuts, and offers products gourmet Il Parodi: really delicious the 'butter' of hazelnuts. What butter, in fact, is not: it is in fact called 'Cream of hazelnuts', made with Ligurian hazelnuts that are 4,500 years old, present in the Ark of Taste of Slow Food for Biodiversity (and chocolate, in this case).
In summary: the 'butter' of dried fruit is easy to make at home, healthy and greedy. And you can also add the oil of the same dried fruit, precious both from the point of view of taste and nutrients. If you choose to buy a 'butter' ready, choose the 'creams': they are basically spreadable pastes pure, without the addition of industrial processes and hydrogenated fats.
Carola Traverso Saibante
February 2019
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