Pan Pistacchio e Cioccolato

The two flavors pull in opposite directions. Pistachio is sweet, green and faintly savory, with a resinous note that almonds and hazelnuts lack. Dark chocolate is bitter and roasted. Together, each sharpens the other: the chocolate keeps the pistachio from turning cloying, and the pistachio rounds off the chocolate's edge.

Proportion decides whether the pairing works. Pistachio is the quieter flavor and disappears under too much cocoa, so it needs room. It is a pairing you meet all over Italian sweets, from gelato counters to filled pastries, and it rarely needs a third flavor.

It is made with puff pastry, so it shatters into thin, crisp layers when you bite it, with the pistachio cream and dark chocolate inside. On top it is striped in green and finished with chopped pistachios.

If you are choosing between our pistachio pastries: the Croissant al Pistacchio and the Cornetto al Pistacchio are pistachio only. If you want chocolate without pistachio, the pain au chocolat. If you want both flavors in one pastry, this is the one. Eat it over a plate: puff pastry leaves flakes.

In the morning, give it something unsweetened: an espresso or an americano. After lunch it holds its own as dessert. Late in the afternoon it makes a natural merenda, the small sweet Italians eat between lunch and a late dinner.

If pistachio is what keeps you coming back, we also sell a jar of pistachio spread with our logo at the counter, for toast, for gelato or for eating off the spoon.