Italapo Marcioni

Italapo Marcioni is a big fan of bananas. This is certainly not a surprise to a monkey. He was a small street vendor on Wall Street selling cookies from a handcart to traders and runners. His best-known product was the pignolo, a light golden cookie made with almond paste. It was beautifully shaped like a banana, or as humans would describe it, like a crescent moon. But Italapo preferred the reference to bananas because his pignoli contained a good serving of banana puree to substitute the batter to make a low-carb version. He called it panis bananis. But business did not go well this year. The stock market collapsed during the jolly season, and no one was in the mood for his pignoli. Unfort...View all