Category: Fruits

Calabrian Peppers “Cruschi” (Crisp)

9.5.2018

It is a must of Calabrian and Mediterranean cuisine: “peperoni cruschi” (crisp and dried peppers). For peperoni cruschi, you need sun-dried sweet Calabrian peppers from the province of Cosenza.

Such Peperoni are ideal, but any dried sweet Italian pepper will work and will be perfect for various dishes throughout the winter months.

If you have bought peperoni cruschi, then they need to be eaten as soon as they are prepared, not months later out of a cellophane bag. Otherwise, you can plan to dry personally some sweet Italian peppers, next summer, or buy the whole dried peppers, then making easy dish yourself.

To make peperoni cruschi, first remove the seeds and stems from the dried peppers and cut into pieces. Place the cut peppers with some extra virgin olive oil in a pan. Garnish them with some olives and place the pan over medium heat.

 

TYPICAL CELEBRATIONS WHEN THEY ARE EATEN 

December is a month of many celebrations, both religious and secular, when such peppers are eaten.

Often each celebration is accompanied by the serving of a particular food or dish. For example, December 8 is the feast of the Immaculate Conception in the Roman Catholic Church, and it marks the beginning of the Christmas holiday season and its wonderful dishes in Calabria.

Other typical occasion is Christmas. During the Christmas festivities this recipe, handed down for generations and without distortions dictated by culinary trends, is a wonderful memory of the past. During such time it is worth waiting all year for the salted cod, served with the crunchy “cruschi” peppers in Calabria and fried with extra virgin olive oil.

 

THE TASTE

Peperoni cruschi are a specialty of Calabrian and, also, of Lucan cuisine.

The peppers cruschi have a good taste, are crisp and lend themselves to many recipes. They have a distinctive flavor, they remain crisp even after cooking and are so engaging that one pulls the other.

Usually, they are fried simply in olive oil, served with boiled potatoes, cooked with cod or are excellent for flavoring sautéed vegetables.

Together with the cruschi peppers you can taste eggs and sausage.

 

SOME FEATURES

The pepper is planted between February and March, and then harvested at the beginning of August when the berries are colored with an intense purple red. Finally, they are hung on windows and balconies, intertwined together with needle and thread from the petiole are left to dry in the sun. They represent a typical preserve for the winter. In summer, a particular quality of peppers become red because when they are ripe, they are threaded with a needle and thread like a necklace. These necklaces are exposed to the sun to allow the drying of the peppers.

The peppers are divided into three morphological types: (i) “Appuntito”, (ii) Tronco “e (iii) ” Uncino “. Red-purple, with a conical shape and small size, it resembles a chilli pepper but has a sweet taste; the pulp, thin and poor in water, makes the pepper excellent for drying.

Calabrian pepper “cruschi” are recognizable by its size, smaller, and for its shape, pointed and hooked, is also called ‘zafaran’, probably because the color of dried peppers reduced to dust reminds that of saffron.

For this reason it is also said that here, the pepper and chilli have taken the place of saffron because with little flavor and color food.

The nutritive properties are the following: they are rich in Vitamin A, E, K and PP,  further the peppers contain a high percentage of vitamin C, 30% more than other types.

 

TRADITIONS IN OTHER REGIONS

Some particular peppers are from Calabria, other from Basilicata (so called Lucania).

In both cases such precious fruits come from a careful cultivation; seeds are collected from year to year by farmers, and they are difficult to find in supermarkets,.

In Basilicata are used for the preparation of typical local dishes, like baccalà, polenta, tomato salads and crushed olives, but also for many preserved foods, such as meats, and for the preservation of cheeses and fish, such as salted anchovies.

“Senise Cruschi” peppers in Basilicata have obtained a local protection, called “IGP”, but in Calabria they are cultivated with the same dedication. The peppers are harvested at the end of summer, already ripe and with a typical reddish color.

In Calabria these peppers are used for the preparation of traditional sausages,  so called “sopressate” (typical salami), “capocollo” (other type of salami), and also for the preservation of cheese that is greased after aging with a mixture of vinegar, oil and ground red pepper, or bluefish.

Diamante Citron, a biblical fruit

8.4.2018

The Diamante citron is a variety of citron named after the town of Diamante, and there is a museum,  located in such town, in the province of Cosenza, Calabria, on the south-western coast of Italy, dedicated to preservation of  all the tradition of such cultivation.

This fruit has a pluri-millenary history, given that the same Bible mentions this variety, sometimes called the “Calabria Esrog”. “Esrog” is the Ashkenazi transliteration of the Hebrew name for citron.

The connection with Israel is not casual.

In the Old Testament, Leviticus 23:40 makes reference to the fruit of a beautiful tree, or Perì ‘etz adar in Hebrew: “On the first day you shall take the fruit of majestic trees, branches of palm trees, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days.”

The Talmudic tradition denotes the citron or Etrog as the fruit described in this verse. Thus, the citrus has been integral to Jewish celebrations for a very, very long time. The fruit is one the four fruits used in the cerimony of the “Feast of the Tabernacles”, the week-long festival (also called “Sukkot”) which celebrates the unity of the Jewish people and the biblical account of their escape from slavery in ancient Egypt to the promised land via 40 years in the desert.

Historically and for centuries, the farmers of the place have grown citrons that are considered among the best in the world. However, these citrons are among the most requested as etrogim for the festival of Sukkot, – in Israel.

This way, during the summer, several rabbis from all over the world move to the coast of Diamante to harvest, personally, the best fruits and send them to Jewish communities in the US, Israel, Russia, Canada, UK and the rest of the world.

In any case, the rabbis are never considered foreigners in this place, they are very familiar to local people. This is the reason why farmers are aware of the kashrut requirements.

The tradition says the cultivation was introduced by the same Jews, living here for centuries, since the “Diaspora” (70 D.C.) or even before in the third century B.C.. A community of such Calabrian Jews has survived in Rome continuously since then but Jews were expelled from Calabria in the first half of the 16th Century as Spanish rule brought the anti-Semitism of the inquisition to southern Italy.

The community was destroyed but they left many markers, including the Eastern method of farming.

Calabria’s citrons used to reach Jewish communities worldwide via wholesalers in Genoa — until some curious rabbis visited Calabria in the 1950s. Afterwards, the commerce re-started.

THE TERRITORY

Citron fields are it the background of San Michele Castle. These etrogim have been part of these lands for 2,000 years, given that, as said, the tradition tells us that they were brought here by Jews who established themselves in the area.

Diamante’s coast features a unique microclimate, where the warm air from the sea meets the cold air from the mountains, creating the ideal habitat for the delicate citron trees. Further, the region’s friable soil is very suitable for the species’s short roots.

The trees usually flower in June, and the fruit is ripe by the end of July, when farmers, rabbis and etrog merchants choose, cut and pack away the choicest ones.

While there are at least 12 varieties of citron that are kosher for Sukkot use, including numerous strains from Israel, it is a centuries-old Chabad-Lubavitch custom to make the blessing on one grown specifically in Calabria.

The Calabria etrog is often called a Yanover etrog—“Yanova” being the Yiddish expression for “Genoa”, from which the fruits were shipped by Jewish merchants for centuries.

The etrog-growing region in northern Calabria is enveloped between the Tyrrhenian Sea on one side and mountains on the other. Today, citron cultivation takes place in the Riviera dei Cedri, the area surrounding the town of Santa Maria del Cedro.

The Cedro della Riviera dei Cedri, or Calabria citron, grows nowhere else in the world but a portion of this southern coastal region of Italy.

The market became far more lucrative for the farmers when Jewish merchants began paying per single fruit (etrog). Over the years, small farms have mostly disappeared, making way for larger industrial operations of a few hundred trees. Although quality citrons deemed kosher are sold at a good price by farmers, the work is laborious, and it is precisely the ungrafted trees that can suffer the most during the year’s frost.

Citron growing dwindled generally but survived along the Riviera dei Cedri thanks to the favourable coastal micro-climate.

THE HARVEST OF THE RABBIS

Byron and D’Annunzio celebrated the citron in Calabria, but it was only saved from extinction, thanks to the Jewish tradition.

A Jewish delegation comes from Israel to Santa Maria del Cedro every year between July and August to choose the best fruit to be used in the holiday for the Jewish community.

Once the good fruit is found, the rabbis shows it to the worker who cuts it off leaving a piece of the stalk. Then the boxes are sealed and sent to the Lamezia Terme International Airport with a final destination Tel Aviv.

To be deemed kosher, an etrog cannot be grown on a tree that has been grafted (in order to defend the fruits from frost), which presents many difficulties for the citron farmer. In itself, the citron tree is weak, yet when grafted with the rootstock of another citrus tree, it is able to survive a tougher environment and produce genetically indistinguishable etrogim. As beautiful as they may be, these fruits are not kosher and cannot be used for the Jewish holiday.

FEATURES

The citron (citrus medica, botanical name) is a large, fragrant citrus fruit with a thick rind. Its center pulp is quite small and the wide pith is edible and not bitter like other citruses. In Italian, the word cedro means both citron and cedar tree, which may be confusing for those already familiar with the latter.

Traditionally, the principal culinary usage of the fruit has been in candied form, such as found in fruitcakes or the Christmas panettone. A the contrary, the citrons deemed kosher, an etrog, must not be on a plant that has been grafted. The fruit must be healthy, of a nice conical shape, green in color and with the crown intact.

Citrons sell for about 10 Euros apiece and inspectors usually examine between 10 and 100 individual pieces of fruit for each Etrog selected. Particularly beautiful and perfectly proportioned fruit can sell for hundreds of dollars.

THE REMAINING FRUIT

After the selection of the Etrog, the remaining fruit is left on the vine to mature and is then gathered for food products. Cedro candito or candied citron is the most common use.

The Diamante citrons are halved and placed in a brine solution in barrels for 69 days. At the point the rind takes on a crystalline appearance, the citron are removed and seeded. They are then placed in fresh water for several days to take the salt out. Finally, the fruit undergoes the candied phase in a sugar and water solution.

Other little gems from the Riviera of the Citron are destined for artisanal shops that prepare pastry. The delicate flavor of citron gelato or a pastry incorporating citron extract, the tang of citron marmalade or the fragrant sensation of the candied bits is routine on the Citron Riviera. The novel citrus is also featured in numerous savory dishes at local restaurants, in which chefs experiment with this ancient fruit to create new offerings for an ever-curious clientele.

In addition to candied fruit, the citron has inspired a host of edible and very drinkable creations, such as marmalade, syrup, liquors, extracts and cookies.

On top of the lovely flavor of the citron, the fruit’s health properties have been recognized for millennium, such as with regard to stomachaches, the gout, and also as a detoxifying and cleansing agent. The citron is widely used in perfume and cosmetics, as well.