Your Story, Our Story A Puerto Rican kitchen isn't complete without a pilon. A pilon is a Puerto Rican wood mortar with a wooden pestle used as a kitchen tool to mash up ingredients. I can close my eyes and still smell the aroma of fresh garlic being mashed in my Abuela's pilon. When I think of the pilon, I think of my Abuela, Ursulina, and the process of making sofrito, a paste used as a base for many ...