Biscotti al Pistacchio

Once again I was trawling through one of my favourite blogs, 101 Cookbooks when I came across this gorgeous recipe for Biscotti al Pistacchio.  It drew me in as it combined three of my favourite things ... biscotti, pistacchios and Italy. It brought back memories of the day I marched into a biscotti factory in Trastevere and tried to order biscuits with very limited Italian from a Nonna with NO english.  I managed to come away with the most delicious bag full of mixed Italian biscotti which sustained us for about 6 hours as we drove south to Amalfi. 
This recipe originally comes from Biscotti: Recipes from the Kitchen of the American Academy in Rome, The Rome Sustainable Food Project.
This is one of the easiest recipes you could try, so give it a go and chew on a little bit of Italy today!
(I halved the recipe ... as there are only 2 of us and it made approximately 24 biscotti)

250g raw pistachios
100g granulated sugar
1/2 tablespoon honey
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoons freshly grated lemon zest
scant 1/4 cup egg whites from 2 large eggs
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar, for coating cookies
Preheat the oven to 350F / 180C.

Pulse the pistachios in a food processor with 50g of the granulated sugar until the nuts are finely chopped.
Combine the ground pistachio-sugar mixture with the honey, vanilla, and lemon zest in a large mixing bowl. Slowly add the egg white, mixing until the dough is well combined and soft. At this point, add the rest of the granulated sugar and mix gently.
Form the dough into small balls, and roll them in the icing sugar to coat well. Transfer the balls to cookie sheets lined with baking paper, leaving at least an inch between each cookie.
Bake for 15-18 minutes, until the edges of each cookie are golden.
These cookies can be stores in a sealed container for up to 2 weeks.
Makes approximately 24