I know we're all talking about the same cookie, here, but there are natural differences in both the name of the cookie and the recipes, reflecting regional differences, family traditions, preferences and memories.

My parents and grandparents came here from Calabria, so I'm sure there are quite a number of similarities between our Easter Cookies, which they called "Ngutti" (I have no idea how that would be spelled -- of course, neither did they). Their cookie traditions reflected the impoverished lifestyle of Calabrese during the early 20th century, viz., few and simple ingredients. The ngutti that I remember were made with a dough quite similar to biscotti except without any "added ingredients" such as chopped nuts, anise seed, etc. They were most commonly flavored with anise in our family, but we knew of others whose ngutti dough was lemon flavored.

As others have pointed out, the ngutti dough was shaped like a large, oblong cookie (3"-4" wide, 5"-8" long). A parboiled egg was placed on top the cookie, nearer to one end that to the center, and the egg was criss-crossed with dough that had been rolled out into about a half inch diameter. The cross atop the egg represented Jesus' Crucifix, and the egg symbolized (of course) the promise of Easter. Sometimes the edge of the cookie opposite the criss-crossed egg was decorated further by making curly-cues out of twisted fingers of dough, and sometimes also a couple little candies such as a jellybean was pushed into the top of the cookie before baking.

I've got a pretty clear photo of one, if anyone is interested in seeing it. My 98 year old aunt told me just this afternoon that the use of a basic biscotti recipe would be perfect, but that they shouldn't be "double baked" like biscotti, and they should also be brushed with an egg white before baking, to give them a nice, smooth and golden surface when baked.

There you go! Buona Pasqua, Tutti!