We were especially smitten by the roasted skate meuniere in browned hazelnut butter, served with chopped savoy cabbage and crisp potato straws.

More commonly found in Europe, hazelnut butter is also familiar when mixed with chocolate as a chief ingredient in Nutella.

You can buy unsweetened hazelnut paste (also called hazelnut butter) at health food stores.

In the United States, hazelnut butter is being promoted as a more nutritious spread than its peanut butter counterpart, though it has a higher fat content.

Stir in the hazelnut butter with a spatula.

In between there were wonderful entrees like Dover sole in hazelnut butter and crabcakes in a lush lobster sauce.

Beat in the hazelnut butter, the egg and the vanilla.

"It's the French roasted hazelnut butter that does that," Domingos said.

The red-pepper sauce on the following page, for instance, doesn't necessarily need the hazelnut butter to taste rich and bright on cold grilled chicken.

Whisk the 3 tablespoons of hazelnut butter into the sauce in the saucepan.