Italian Cherries and Friends
- lisaksaunders1
- Jul 14
- 2 min read
Ciao amici,
Who doesn’t love a bowl of cherries? There’s an Italian saying, “Kisses are like cherries: one always leads to another” and as someone who just got married two weeks ago, I couldn’t agree more!
Ciliegia (chee-lee-eh-jah), cherry, is one of the few difficult words to spell in Italian. I’ll spare you the etymology of this word so we can just sit back and enjoy the cherry flavors Italy has to offer.
Cherries are grown all over Italy with Puglia, the heel, being the largest and most wide-spread producer. Italy has at least 20 different varietals of cherries, the most beloved being the Ciliegia di Vignola which comes with an IGP label guaranteeing that the cherries were grown in Emilia-Romagna, near Bologna.
If you’re in Italy in early summer or strolling around Eataly, you will see some versions of fruits that you could assume as being cherries, such as amarena and visciola. However, they are different, and here’s how: (Descriptions in the same order as the photo.)
La ciliegia: Your typical cherries with firm, fleshy and very sweet juice. Ideal for snacking, pies and juicing.
La visciola: A close relative known as “acid cherries”. Recognizable by their sweet and sour flavor, they are also smaller than regular cherries. Ideal for making jams and liqueurs.
L’amarena: Another close cousin to cherries, amarene are a touch sour and bring a delectable bitter flavor. Ideal for preserves and syrups, they are used to make maraschino cherries for your cocktails!
Have you ever mistaken one fruit for another in Italy? If you are going later in the summer, I recommend tasting your way through all of the varieties of plums and figs!
Have a wonderful July 4th weekend! Un abbraccio, Lisa |
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