Krumiri di Casale Monferrato

Piedmont does not shout. It is not the cuisine of red sauce and drama. It is butter, hazelnuts, white truffles, and understated elegance. Krumiri belong to this tradition: a cookie that looks modest but reveals its quality in every crumb.

The cornmeal gives these cookies their distinctive sandy texture, somewhere between shortbread and polenta. Fine yellow maize flour, not the coarse grind you use for polenta, creates a delicate granular quality that dissolves on the tongue. The butter must be generous. Piedmont has never been shy with butter, and neither should you be.

You pipe these through a star tip to create ridges that catch the light and crisp in the oven. The curve is traditional, a gentle arc that supposedly echoes a royal mustache. Whether this story is true matters less than the result: a cookie that fits perfectly against a cup of espresso, ready to be dipped.