Nina’s ’Nolis: Pignoli Cookies from the Bakehouse
Great gluten-free eating to welcome the New Year!
One of my favorite Bakehouse sweets just came back on the newly released January specials list!
Nina’s ’Nolis are named for one of our longtime Bakehouse managers, Nina Plasencia. The Roadhouse, as I mentioned above, celebrated its 22nd anniversary this year. Nina started one year earlier. She’s quietly been a big part of making the Bakehouse what it is for all this time, so naming these incredible little cookies for her is a small but fun way to honor her wonderful work.
The cookies are made with ground almonds and hazelnuts, some great butter, and a touch of honey, and they’re garnished lovingly with toasted pine nuts. It just so happens that Nina’s ’Nolis are naturally gluten-free because they have no flour. In Italy, pine nut cookies are a long-standing staple. They make a great accompaniment for your morning espresso, or for a delicate dessert after dinner!
Longtime Zingerman’s supporter Carol Field, who wrote The Italian Baker and a host of other great books, says that pine nut cookies like this have been eaten since Roman times. Amy Emberling, co-managing partner at the Bakehouse, says, “We’ve made them off and on over the years, and for a variety of reasons, I think they’re going to take off this time. They get positive reviews from practically everyone. Delicious! Traditional! Can’t beat a combo like that.” I think she’s right—they really are wonderful! Need more convincing? On Food52, Food Blogga wrote:
Biscotti may be the stars of Italian cookies but pignoli are the talented understudies just waiting to be discovered. Pignoli cookies are mildly sweet yet have a full-bodied nutty flavor from almond paste that lingers pleasantly on your palate. The crispy exterior reveals a chewy interior that gently pulls away as you bite it. Once you taste a pignoli cookie, you may just think it’s a star.
It’s not hard to imagine using these cookies to make a delicious dessert pasta or an Italianate noodle kugel. Or, if you like your salad on the sweeter side, crumble some on top of it. Crumbling a couple onto some of the great Italian egg pasta we have at the Deli, tossed with delicate olive oil like ROI from Liguria and freshly ground black pepper, would make a lovely lunch or brunch. Buonsissimo!
Preorder pignoli
P.S. While the ingredients of the cookies are wheat-free, the cookies are made at Bakehouse, where wheat flour goes into other products. In other words, you may want to check in with your doctor before eating them if you’re allergic to gluten.
