One of the most appealing things about the classic Southern Italian pignoli cookie is its simplicity. With just five ingredients, pignoli cookies have a crispy exterior and a moist chewy center, similar to a macaroon. They’re subtly sweet and simply decorated with rich oblong pine nuts on top. Standard to the point of being overlooked, the best examples, like those at Fortunato Brothers, remind me why pignoli cookies have long been the heavy of the Italian holiday cookie plate.

There are several varieties of pine trees around the world that produce the pine nut, although only certain ones are used for the pignoli cookie. The tiny torpedo-shaped nuts that ornament the cookies are high in fat and grow inside pinecones on trees in Northern Italy and Turkey. Their slow growth and labor-intensive extraction process make pine nuts expensive.

While the decor and chestbeating at Fortunato’s sometimes puts me off from staying, and I have been disappointed in some of their cakes and pastries, (yet I’m intrigued by the cream puff swans) they make the tastiest and freshest pignoli cookies in the neighborhood.

Fortunato Brothers
289 Manhattan Avenue

Originally published on Until Monday: Brooklyn