Why You Need Nutellasagna to Celebrate the Holidays This Year

— -- Most Italian-Americans know that the holidays aren’t the same without lasagna on the table.

We’re not saying there’s anything wrong with the traditional red sauce version -- but oh my goodness check out this dessert version.

The nutellasagna, the brainchild of Allison Robicelli, co-chef/owner of Robicelli’s Bakery in Brooklyn, New York, is the stuff holiday dessert dreams are made of.

“Instead of using ricotta, we use a ricotta cannoli cream. And then instead of using tomato sauce, we add Nutella,” Robicelli told ABC News. “There’s a crushed hazelnut praline instead of parmesan cheese and little bits of chocolate to give it that crunch. And of course lasagna noodles.”

Robicelli, along with her husband and co-chef Matt, came up with the dessert as a part of the bakery’s “Jump the Shark Summer” where they tried to come up with the wackiest mash-up desserts possible.

“We kept getting requests from the press for the next cronut or ramen burger, and it started getting very silly. We felt like pastry was getting really gimmicky so we decided every week this summer we’d come up with the silliest, most ridiculous, gimmicky thing we could possibly think of and have a lot of fun with it,” Robicelli said. “I was like we’re Italian and from south Brooklyn, so let’s make an Italian noodle kugel and it turned into Nutella lasagna, and then we just mashed the words. Everything kind of went perfectly together.”

Robicelli makes the nutellasagna exactly how you would make a classic version, simply substituting the sweeter ingredients and finishing it off with marshmallows instead of mozzarella cheese.

“My favorite part of lasagna is the burnt piece on the side, and you can’t really get that burnt part with Nutella, so we added marshmallows to get it more American and kugelish,” she explained.

Since debuting the nutellasagna in August for one week only, Robicelli said they’ve kept getting requests for it to be brought back, and Christmas felt right to her.

“It’s very food porny and came from a silly place, but it really evolved into something very meaningful for us because of the connection of our culture and being from Brooklyn and being Italian,” she said. “Growing up, Christmas wasn’t Christmas without my grandmother’s lasagna. The holiday hasn’t been the same since she passed away four years ago, so the idea of making something that kind of keeps her back in Christmas for me is really sweet. It’s like the pastry chef version of the thing my grandma used to give me.”

Robicelli’s is delivering trays of the nutellasagna within New York City, or you can attempt to make your own by following a standard lasagna recipe and substituting the sweet ingredients. Either way, this could be a big hit at your table.