Bergamot, the green gold from Calabria

Poets described the bergamot as “the most beautiful fruit” or even “the Aphrodite’s apple” in order to revive its myth over the years. Its origin is still uncertain, it seems related with the Turkish “berga-mundi”, or conil “the lord’s pear” because of the typical shape of the pear-bergamot. In Calabria, in Reggio Calabria and along the coastline of the Ionian Sea this word had been heard since the end of the 15th century when

this fruit was implanted in a lemon tree and the bergamot started to be widely cultivated to extract its precious perfumed essence to produce the essential oil that was needed to make the highly commercialized perfumes. Until a short time ago they thought that this fruit could be used in the cosmetics and in the medicine fields only while it has been widely proved that it is very well known in the food field as well.

The villages of the “Bergamot land”

The history of the bergamot is very old like the villages where it grows mainly Melito Porto Salvo, Palizzi, Bova, Pentedattilo, Bagaladi and Roghudi, where the last Hellenes from Italy are still living. Its history is very old, in the 17th century the first canditi and babà were made by using the bergamot and they say that this fruit was never missing at the Court of the Sun King. The aromatic qualities of this fruit

are peculiar mainly because it can soften the tastes which are too sweet. That’s why it’s used in the confectionery field. Regarding the cuisine there are at least 150 products derived from the bergamot which besides stimulating the finest appetite it is used by the most famous chefs in the world. The whole food sector from Calabria is with no doubt the trump card from this point of view.

The bergamot recipes

There are several recipes that imply the use of the bergamot that also testify the European tastes: from the Renaissance cuisine to the poor one from Calabria; from the nouvelle cuisine to the most exotic recipes. After all how can we define the juice and the julienne from the bergamot’s skin, its bitter and aromatic taste that sometimes replaces the oranges and the lemons in the marinated recipes or in the meat roast? It is also used to flavour the pies, the donuts and

the profiteroles or it’s used to make the famous Bergamino liquor, not to mention the boldest matches like the bergamot and the caviar or the oysters, the lentils, the sea urchins, the swordfish and the salmon. The highest peak is certainly reached with some special old recipes like the rice rolls with the bergamot’s leaves, the chicken with the pomegranate and the bergamot’s juice, the turkey with the tuna sauce and the duck with the bergamot’s juice.

Starred Calabria

Not long ago the famous “New York Times” entered Calabria among the unavoidable destinations of the Italian food and it crowned this region as “the queen of the Italian cuisine”. And “tasty emotions” were born from the recipes that are mentioned here: they are old recipes that also come with erudite literary quotes by Tomasi di Lampedusa, Gabriele D’Annunzio, Carlo Emilio Gadda, Manuel Vazquez Montalban, Andrea Camilleri and Jorge Amado. Just a few important

names to go beyond the geographical area of the bergamot and the local food tradition and revive the myth of the Aphrodite’s beloved fruit. These recipes are the very special ones, they belong to the best traditions and they represent a unique experience of tastes. They were born from a careful historical research in the past and they have been re-invented to get the peculiar feature of “its majesty the bergamot”, the noblest citrus fruit in the world.