Brutti ma buoni

Brutti ma buoni, Italian for ugly but good, is a hazelnut or almond flavoured biscuit made in Prato in Tuscany and in many other cities, and also sold as mandorlati di San Clemente. The biscuits are made by folding roasted chopped nuts into a meringue of egg white and sugar. The result is crunchy on the outside and soft in the middle. Where the biscuit began is disputed, but it has been made since at least the middle of the nineteenth century. In Prato it is often sold alongside biscottini di Prato.