Veneziana al Pistacchio

The veneziana is a leavened, butter-rich bun, usually round and domed, with sugar on top: coarse grains, a glaze or a dusting. In Italy it comes in two sizes. The small one is a breakfast pastry, ordered at the bar like a cornetto and eaten with a cappuccino; sometimes it is plain, sometimes it carries pastry cream. The large one is a holiday cake in the same family as panettone.

The name is a small puzzle. Veneziana means “Venetian,” yet reference works usually file the pastry under Lombard cooking, the cuisine of Milan, and nobody has firmly tied it to Venice. If you are searching for it, chances are you remember the round shape and the sugar on top from a trip, and only half remember what it was called.

Not really. A croissant shatters; a veneziana tears. Its dough is enriched and proofed into a soft, even crumb, with no layers to flake. Its closer relatives are the brioche-type pastries, the family our guide to Italian pastry describes as soft, sweet and filled. That makes it easy company for a first visit: no shower of flakes, nothing to shatter, just a bun you can tear in half and share.

Our Veneziana al Pistacchio keeps the soft bun, adds Bronte pistachio custard as a crown and inside the bun, and finishes it with powdered sugar. A custard is lighter than a pistachio spread, closer to pastry cream in texture, so the nut comes through without weighing the bun down. The powdered sugar is there for sweetness and for the look you remember.

It is new, so if you usually come for the Cornetto al Pistacchio, try the two side by side: the same pistachio idea in a rounder, softer shape. With a pistachio latte it becomes an all-pistachio breakfast. With a plain cappuccino, the pistachio stands out more. Eat it the morning it is baked, the way it is eaten in Italy; a brioche-style bun is at its softest that day and starts drying from the outside in by the next.