What is "pignolo"

Pignolo (plural pignoli) is a macaroon typical of Sicily, Italy. It is a very popular cookie in all of southern Italy, and in Sicilian communities in the United States. It is also typical of Catalonia, where it is one of several related cookies called panellets, served on All Saints Day.

The cookie is a light golden color and studded with golden pine nuts (also called pignoli). Made with almond paste, the cookie is moist, soft and chewy beneath the pine nuts. Often it is formed in a crescent shape; otherwise it is round. This cookie is a popular Italian holiday treat, especially at Christmas. Because both almond paste and pine nuts are relatively expensive, and this cookie uses substantial amounts of both, this cookie is a luxury food.

Being essentially an almond macaroon, this cookie belongs to a type known as "amaretto".

Pignolo is a red Italian wine grape grown predominantly in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of northeast Italy. Believed to have been cultivated in the hills of Rosazzo, the grape is now a prominent variety in the Colli Orientali del Friuli Denominazione di origine controllata (DOC). In Italian the grape's name means "fussy" which does describe the viticultural profile of the grape which often produces low and uneven yields. The first recorded mention of the grape was in Abbot Giobatta Michieli's late 17th century book Bacchus in Friuli in which he described the grape making "excellent black wine". Today the grape is used to make rich, deep colored, full bodied wine that does well with some time in oak. Well made examples of the wine have good balance between the grape's acidity and tannins with flavor notes of plum and blackberry. Most experts believe that it is not related to the Lombardy Pignola grape of the Valtellina region.

Pignolo (plural pignoli; also pinolo and pinoli) may refer to:

• Pine nut, seed from trees of the genus Pinus
• Any cookie with pine nuts:
  • Biscotto, twice baked cookie (biscuit), when made with pine nuts
  • Pignolo (macaroon), typical of Sicily
• Pignolo (grape), a wine grape typical of Friuli
  • Ribolla Gialla, another Italian/Slovenian wine grape that is also known as Pignolo
  • Bianchetta Trevigiana, Italian wine grape known as Pignolo bianco
• Pignolo, a heritage variety of maize; see Italian traditional maize varieties