Torrone di Benevento

the honeyed hazelnut nougat of Campania: whipped egg white and slowly cooked honey set dense with the toasted hazelnuts of Avellino, wafered and cut for Christmas and the feast of the dead

Origin: Italy

From the journey of Hazelnut.

Torrone, the honey-and-nut nougat of Italy, is one of the great festive sweets of the peninsula, and though several cities claim it, the Campanian town of Benevento has made it peculiarly its own. Here, in the hinterland of Naples where the hills of Avellino grow the Tonda di Giffoni, one of the finest culinary hazelnuts in the world, the torrone is made above all with the hazelnut rather than the almond, and it is bound to the Neapolitan calendar of feasts: the torrone dei morti, the 'nougat of the dead', is made for the first days of November and the commemoration of the departed, and the classic white torrone returns for Christmas. The method is ancient and demanding: honey is cooked slowly for hours until thick, whipped egg white is beaten into it to lighten and whiten the mass, and the toasted nuts are folded through before the whole is poured out between sheets of edible wafer (the ostia), pressed, cooled, and cut into bars. A good torrone is a study in contrast: the honeyed nougat may be soft and chewy or hard and brittle depending on how far the honey is cooked, but always it is dense with whole toasted hazelnuts, and always it carries the deep floral sweetness of the honey against the roasted nut.

Ingredients

Nougat

  • 350 g honey
  • 150 g caster sugar
  • 2 whole egg whites
  • 400 g hazelnuts, toasted and skinned
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 strip lemon zest, finely grated

Assembly

  • 2 sheets edible wafer paper (ostia / rice paper)

Method

  1. Warm the hazelnuts through in a low oven so they are hot when they go in. Line a small tin (about 20 x 15 cm) with a sheet of wafer paper. Put the honey in a heavy heatproof bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water and cook, stirring often, for about 1 hour, until it darkens slightly and thickens.
  2. Meanwhile, dissolve the sugar in 2 tbsp water and boil to 140°C (hard-ball stage). Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks. Whisking constantly, pour the hot sugar syrup onto the whites in a thin stream to make a firm meringue.
  3. Beat the meringue into the hot cooked honey a spoonful at a time (still over the simmering water) until fully combined, then keep cooking and stirring for 15 to 30 minutes more, until a little dropped into cold water sets to the firmness you want: softer for a chewy torrone, harder for a brittle one.
  4. Working quickly, fold in the warm toasted hazelnuts until evenly distributed. Scrape the mixture into the wafer-lined tin, press it down firmly and level it with an oiled spatula, and lay a second sheet of wafer paper on top.
  5. Leave to set at room temperature for several hours or overnight. Turn out and cut into bars or squares with a heavy, warmed knife.

Notes

The proportion of honey to sugar and the final cooking temperature together decide whether the torrone is torrone morbido (soft and chewy) or torrone duro (hard and brittle); both are traditional. A good, well-flavoured honey is essential, as it carries the sweet. The wafer paper (ostia) is traditional and keeps the sticky nougat from adhering to hands and packaging, but the torrone can be made without it, pressed into an oiled, lined tin. Almonds can replace some of the hazelnuts, but the Beneventan style leans firmly on the hazelnut.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

Mapping Culinary History

To explore — select an ingredient below.

Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
© 2026 The Gastrographer. All original research, narratives, and illustrations. All rights reserved.