Italian spiced almonds

March 26, 2013 at 12:15 am (unrated, Website / blog)

Derek came back from Berlin in February with some spicy almonds from the restaurant Little Otik.  The nuts were smoky and garlicky and just a little sweet—he adored them.  I looked for a similar recipe and couldn’t find anything quite the same, but I did come across this one for Italian spiced almonds.  It doesn’t have the smoke, but it has the garlic and the Italian herbs.

Ingredients (three times the original recipe):

• 1.5 cups almonds [I used 230g, about 8.1 oz]
• 1/2 Tbs. olive oil or other fat of choice
• 2 Tbs. fresh rosemary leaves, minced [I used 10g]
• 1 1/2 tsp. minced or pressed garlic (about 6 medium cloves of garlic) [I used 31g]
• 3/4 tsp. onion powder
• 1 1/2 tsp. dried Italian seasoning [I used 1/4 tsp. basil, 1/4 tsp. oregano, 1/8 tsp. thyme, 1/8 tsp. parsley, 1/8 tsp. savory]
• 3/8 tsp. salt

My notes:

The seasoning mixture was tasty (and very garlicky), but it really did not stick to the almonds at all.  When I managed to grab some of the seasoning mixture it tasted reminiscent of the nuts from Little Otik, but not as sweet or smoky.  When I didn’t manage to grab any of the loose seasoning bits, the nuts tasted like very lightly salted, lightly garlicked almonds.  Maybe next time I’ll try combining this recipe with the Union Square bar nuts recipe.  I’ll start with that recipe but add some garlic, maybe some smoked paprika or chipotle powder (instead of the cayenne), and a little bit of Italian herbs.