Brutti ma Buoni – Hazelnut Macarons

Brutti ma Buoni, ugly but good

Brutti ma Buoni are Italian hazelnut macaroons made from a meringue base with hazelnuts and almonds. The name translates to "ugly but good" and describes exactly that: misshapen little heaps, crispy on the outside, chewy and nutty on the inside.

The Brutti ma Buoni from Viani are hazelnut macaroons from Lombardy, baked with five ingredients: sugar, hazelnut kernels, almonds, egg white, and natural vanilla flavoring. They come in a 100-gram bag and are baked without flour. Anyone expecting a pretty pastry is mistaken, and that is the whole point of them.

Crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside, nutty through and through

Sugar is at the top of the ingredient list, but the nuts lead the flavor profile. Hazelnut and almond together define the character, while the vanilla remains in the background.

The bite is what makes them special: on the outside, the meringue forms a thin, crispy crust; underneath, it remains chewy and slightly sticky, with coarse nut pieces inside. Crispy, chewy, and nutty all at once. None of it crumbles; everything has a slight pull.

You can never control their shape because the mixture runs however it wants while baking. Each piece looks different, and none of them look good. Hence the name.

With 419 kilocalories per 100 grams and 44 grams of sugar, they are not diet food, but neither are they the kind of thing you need a lot of. Two pieces with coffee, and that's it. The 100-gram bag is therefore enough for several afternoons.

With espresso, dessert wine, or in tiramisu

Classically, they are served after a meal alongside an espresso, because the roasted notes of the coffee pick up the nuts and carry away the sweetness.

In Italy, they belong to the group of pastries that aren't meant to replace a cake, but to provide a finish: small, sweet, one or two pieces, and that's enough. On a coffee table next to tarts, they therefore look rather out of place.

They go just as well with a glass of dessert wine or a Limoncello from the freezer. In Italy, people dip them without any guilty conscience, which is also the only sensible way to treat a pastry that is chewy to begin with.

In the kitchen, they can be coarsely crumbled and sprinkled over vanilla ice cream, panna cotta, or zabaglione cream, or used as a base for tiramisu instead of ladyfingers. They are baked without flour, using only egg white, sugar, and nuts; traces of other nuts, soy, milk, and gluten are possible according to the manufacturer. Once opened, they should be kept in a tightly sealed tin, otherwise they will go soft.

Gavirate, Borgomanero, Prato, and an old dispute

Who invented the Brutti ma Buoni has still not been decided to this day. Three places lay claim to them, and each has good arguments.

What all versions share is the origin legend of a mishap: a confectioner knocks over eggs and sugar, bakes the mixture anyway, and suddenly has something new. None of this is documented, but it explains the name so well that it sticks.

The most solid evidence comes from Gavirate in the province of Varese: the local Pasticceria Veniani, founded in 1875, had the recipe protected by the Italian ministry in 1878. Borgomanero in Piedmont counters this and, in 2020, became the only place to receive a municipal designation of origin. And in Tuscany, they are baked in Prato and Pistoia, where Savoyard confectioners are said to have brought them when the capital moved from Turin to Florence in 1865.

Today, they are registered as a traditional product in three different regions, each under its own name. These ones here come from Lombardy, i.e., from the area around Gavirate, and are brought to German shelves by Antonio Viani. You can find more pastries under sweet pastries. Who invented them will never be clarified. If three regions are arguing over one recipe, there must be something to it.