Small Alghero sweets whose Catalan name means pocket eggs, built on egg yolk and almond and finished with a sugar glaze. Sold by the box in the old town pastry shops.
Where to eat it: 1 restaurant across 1 city.
Ous de butxaca belong to the Catalan sweet repertoire that Alghero preserved after the Aragonese resettlement, part of a wider Iberian tradition of yolk-and-sugar confections that convent kitchens developed to use the yolks left over from clarifying wine. The name survives only in Alguerès, which is one reason the sweet has stayed local rather than spreading across Sardinia. Bon Bons on Via Einaudi still bakes them from family recipes recorded in Catalan, alongside menjar blanc and the other feast-day sweets of the old town.
Common allergens: Egg, Nuts, Gluten
Tip from the editors. Keep the syrup below 115C. Any hotter and the yolks set into a grainy curd the moment they meet it.
The Bon Bons laboratory on Via Einaudi in Alghero sells mornings only, with a second counter in the old town on Via Mazzini that also opens late afternoon.
Why locals love it: The family still bakes the Catalan sweets of Alghero from recipes written in Alguerès, not in Italian.
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