The Greek poet Callimacus narrates that, when the youngster Athenian Demofonte, son of Theseus and Phedra, came to Thracia and met the princess Phillides. He fell in love with her and when he married her, he got Anphipolis as dowry. Struck though by homesickness of his motherland, he decided to leave and reach Athens, promising Philides he would come back after one year. The youngster didn’t come back. Philides killed herself but the goddess Athena, moved by the tragic end of the girl, chose to turn her into an almond tree.

The “Pizzuta” almond of Avola is one of the three original varieties local of Avola, near Siracusa: it has a hard smooth shell and it is so called for its extended elliptic shape.

Also, almonds own many good properties and are a balanced and perfect meal, under a nutritional point of view. Besides the proteic intake, almonds are rich in manganese, copper and riboflavin: a real injection of energy, especially in the moments where we need it most. Added to the great role that almonds play for the well being of the heart and the arteries, it seems that the regular consumption of small quantities of almonds helps lowering the colestherol level in our blood. In particular, the quantity of poliphenols –good substances for health present in the skin of almonds- Pizzuta almonds have is three times higher than the one of its Californian relative.

Cantine Gulino’s advice is to match these Pizzuta di Avola almond biscuits with its Don Nuzzo sweet wine.

Ingredients for around 1kg almond biscuits:

• 500gr Pizzuta di Avola almonds
• 500gr caster sugar
• 50gr wildflower honey from Iblei highlands
• 50gr egg white

Method:

After having peeled the almonds in order to then obtain very light coloured biscuits, chop them finely; then add the sugar and continue to finely chop until getting some sort of flour, though rawer texture than the ordinary flour. Put the mixture into a container and then add the honey while keeping on stirring with energy; at last, add the egg whites and continue to stir. The dough obtained can so be used to make the biscuits onto a working table, to be then garnished with an almond or a sweet cherry on top. The cooking needs to take place in a vented preheated oven at 200 C° for 6 to 7 minutes.