There is not a specific word in Greek for the generic term, "nut." In the culinary logic of the Greek cook, nuts fall under the general umbrella of dried fruits, xiri karpi. Nonetheless, they are very basic to our diet, eaten readily as snacks but also important in cooked dishes, stuffings, and sauces (as well as in sweets). The two most significant nuts in the Greek pantry are the walnut and the almond. Pine nuts appear mostly in stuffings, and filberts and pistachios are usually eaten as a snack, although the latter is an important component in several pastries and spoon sweets.

Almonds
Almonds are among the most revered nuts. Botanically, the almond is Prunus Amygdalus, and it is really the kernel of a fruit related to the peach and to the plum. Like most of what belongs to the Greek table, the almond traveled from the East to the West, and began its journey long before anyone was interested enough to record it. Some sources point to western Indian as its native land; others trace its ancestry to Asia Minor or to Babylon. It has been unearthed in the Neolithic levels under the Palace of Knossos in Crete, and in the Bronze Age storerooms under Agia Triada, also in Crete. The Greeks were the first Europeans to cultivate it, and, according to Athenaeus, the famed chronicler of the food of the ancient world, Naxos was celebrated for its almonds.

In modern Greek cooking, the almond (blanched) is sometimes used as a base for skordalia, and as a thickener in an interesting tomato sauce in which eggplants are cooked, and as a little gem with which to slip into eggplants before they are pickled. A fabulous dish from Crete calls for immature almonds sauted with tomatoes.

Walnuts
The leitmotif in Greek pastry making. Baklava, karidopita (walnut cake), diples (fritters sprinkled with walnuts and honey), and melomakarona (walnut-stuffed, syrup-soaked Christmas biscuits), all call for walnuts.
But walnuts are also an important addition to the savory cuisine of the Greeks. Walnuts, even more than almonds, are used ground as a thickener and base for many sauces. In Macedonia, ground walnuts add body and a pleasant, earthy, and discreet bitterness to melitzanosalata (eggplant salad) and to skordalia. Walnuts and garlic combine in another interesting dish from the north, as a sauce over baked eggplant or pumpkin. One of the most unusual dishes is a walnut-stuffed miniature omelet from the rural traditions of Crete. The ancient Greeks used to crush walnuts for their oil, a delicacy which unfortunately has been lost over time.

Pistachios
The best come from the island of Aegina, and are known as fistikia Eginis. Pistachios are generally used in pastries and desserts in Greece. Baklava and other small, honeyed filo pastries are often filled with ground pistachios. One of the most unique Greek desserts is the spoon sweet, called fistiki gliko, which is made with immature pistachios, when their shells are still soft. They are put up in syrup and savored with tall glasses of cool water.