Photo: Wollertz (Shutterstock)
Walk into any Italian bakery and, no matter what your original intention was, look for the pignoli cookie first. It may not be as flashy as the rainbow cookie, but that knobbly little blob is a secret crowd favorite, with good reason. Pignoli cookies are soft, chewy, and utterly almondy. The price tag might seem a little high, but there’s a reason for that too. The ingredients are almond paste, sugar, egg whites, and pine nuts. They’re not ingredients I would spring for on a regular basis, but the holidays are a special time of year where I manage to find the extra 10 bucks. Chewy, light, and brimming with almond flavor, with a light resin aroma, pignoli cookies are unlike any other cookie out there.
