Sorrentos Limoncello

The history, origin and recipe of limoncello. The yellow and wrinkled lemon skin is the essential ingredient of its lucky production. This is how limoncello is born, from a sober and genuine recipe, enriched by water, alcohol and spoons of sugar. The preparation is easy but meticulous : if executed with accuracy, in a bit less than three months, the traditional yellow liquor will be ready to taste as an aperitif or digestive, before or after meals. The history of limoncello bends through a series of anecdotes and legends. Its paternity is competed by sorrentini, amalfitani and capresi. In small plots of kilometres, three populations boast of a production of limoncello passed on by various generations. In Capri, someone says that its origins are linked to the events of the family of the businessman Massimo Canale who, in 1988, registered the first trademark Limoncello. The liquor was born at the beginning of 1900, in a small boarding house of the island Azzurra, where the lady Maria Antonia Farace took care of a rigorous garden of lemons and oranges. The nephew, during the post-war period, opened a bar near Alex Muntes villa. The speciality of that bar was the lemon liquor made with nonnas old recipe. In 1988, the son Massimo Canale started a small handmade production of limoncello, registering the trademark. But really, Sorrento and Amalfi have some legends and stories on the production of the traditional yellow liquor. On the coastal, for example, the story narrates that the big families of Sorrento, at the beginning of 1900, would always ensure that their illustrious guests would get a taste of limoncello, made according to the traditional recipe. In Amalfi, theres even who believes that the liquor has older origins, almost linked to the lemon cultivation. However, as it frequently happens in these circumstances, the truth is vague and the hypothesis are many and interesting. Someone believes that limoncello was used in the morning by fishermen and countrymen to fight the cold, since the invasion periods. Others, instead, believe that the recipe was born inside a monastic convent to delight the monks from prayer to prayer. Maybe, well never know the truth, except for the fact that the traditional yellow liquor has crossed the borders from decades, conquering the markets of half world. Bottles of limoncello are present on the shelves of overseas markets, and new important commercial sceneries are developing on the Asian markets. So, limoncello, could really become a worldwide product like Bitter or Amaretto. And in order to defend itself from the imitations, it is run also to the shelters, reserving to the production of the characteristic "oval" sorrentino the denomination of geographic Indication protect (IGP) . The original lemon of Sorrento has to be produced in one of the town council of the territory that goes from Vico Equense to Massa Lubrense and the island of Capri.

The cultivation system is the typical and traditionally adopted in the area. The most used technique consists in cultivating the plants under a structure made out of chestnut poles higher than three metres. To ensure the ripeness of the fruits, the trunk is protected from the atmospheric conditions. The harvest is usually carried out during the period from February to October: its hand done, because the direct contact of the lemons with the ground has to be prevented. The main characteristics of the product go searched in the elliptic and symmetrical shape, in the medium-large dimensions, the colour of the yellow peel citron. And the main ingredient of the production of limoncello is just the peel: the rind is in fact rich of essential oils and has an aroma much deciding. Once assessed the origin sorrentina of the lemon, can finally be proceeded to the preparation of the liqueur. With little healthy ingredients, the limoncello it can comfortably be prepared also from home. It takes around eighty days. In fact, according to the traditional prescription, limoncello must macerate more than two months.

In the choice of the lemons, those with much thicker peel are preferred. Just the Mediterranean climate of the Sorrento - Amalfi coast guarantees the increase of a lemon with large and perfumed peel. The first step previews the washing of the fruit in warm water and the brush in order to clean it from eventual residual of insecticides. Alcohol is poured in a water jug, and are then added pieces of aromatic rind gained from the peel. The experts advise the use of good quality alcohol, also to avoid that the liqueur is transformed in ice in the freezer. With the arrangement of the water jug covered in a dark room or in a sideboard, the first phase of production is concluded. At environment temperature, in fact, the maceration of the peel will continue and the instilled will slowly assume the aroma and the yellow of the lemon. After approximately a month of rest, the preparation continues with the adding of a small pot of water and sugar (boiled and then left to cool down) and other alcohol. The water jug goes then newly covered and put away in the cabinet for an other abundant month. After forty days approximately, the instilled goes filtered in the bottles, discarding the peels. Then the bottles go in the freezer. From the unique taste and the aroma form, the liqueur goes therefore served, without the additives and colouring agents. Limoncello is an excellent digestive if served cold. Someone prefers it to environment temperature, even stirred in tonic water or champagne. Lately, it is in vogue its utilisation on gelatos and fruit salad. In Campania, in the earth prince of its production, limoncello concludes above all lunch or supper : at this point it has become a social ritual nearly at the same height coffee.

According to some, the lemon was brought to Campania in the first century BC by the Jews, for whom it had a ritual value. The portrayal of the lemon in mosaics and paintings that came to light with the excavations of Pompeii shows their common use in the Neapolitan area since ancient times. What is

certain is that this citrus fruit has acclimatised incredibly well to the land in Campania and has prospered marvellously, until becoming at one with it. So much so that it would be impossible to imagine the Amalfi and Sorrento Coasts without their charming, beautiful and extremely fragrant lemon gardens. Without the characteristic terraces full of flowers or the dramatic contrast between the blue of the sea, the yellow of the fruit and the intense green of the foliage, in a blaze of colour enhanced by the strong dazzling light, this landscape, which is one of the most beautiful in the world, would not be quite so unique. However, it is not just the colours or the other charming elements that attract many appreciative tourists, the lemon groves also offer other important advantages, such as the protection of the territory: by occupying even the steepest slopes, which are often on the verge of being impossible to cultivate, they help to preserve the soil from hydrogeological instability. The local people are very attached to the lemon, to the extent that there is hardly a family in the area that does not have a small or large plot of land of lemon trees, acquired and maintained with hard work and sacrifice. The first specialised lemon groves on the Sorrento Peninsula were the work of the Jesuit fathers, who created an ad hoc farm in 1600 in the Guarazzano basin, between Sorrento and Massalubrense. It is here that an ecotype of the Femminello Ovale variety gradually differentiated through time to form the present cultivar defined as the Ovale di Sorrento, Massese or Massalubrense lemon. It has taken on characteristics of high quality which earned the Sorrento Lemon IGP recognition (Protected Geographical Indication) in November 2000: an important result for the whole of citrus-farming in Campania both for the prestige it brought to the sector and in terms of new commercial opportunities. The lemon is medium-large, elliptical, with an attractive lemon-yellow skin, very fragrant and with a particularly juicy and acidic flesh. Today it is grown in all the communes of the Sorrento Peninsula and all over the island of Capri, both in the province of Naples. It covers a total surface area of 400 hectares and has an annual production of about 100,000 quintals. It is a tardy fruit, so that, although it is produced on the tree all year round, the best fruit are obtained from spring to the end of autumn. Cultivation is typically made up of terraces incorporated in containment walls. Another technical aspect is the covering up of the foliage to protect it from the cold and wind (an indispensable practice during the coldest period of the year because of the geographical position of the Sorrento Peninsula, which is at the northern limit of latitude for lemon-growing) and to delay the ripening of the fruit until the best commercial periods. In the past the well-known "pagliarelle" were used: straw mats resting on wooden stakes, usually of chestnut wood. Today they have been replaced by more practical plastic nets, which are more suitable for the steeper slopes of the area. The Sorrento Lemon already enjoyed a good reputation during the last century, when it was mainly exported to England. Today a moderate quantity of lemons is still exported to European markets,

mainly German and English, but most of the produce is reserved for the domestic market; 40% is destined for fresh consumption and the remaining 60% is used to make the famous Limoncello liqueur from the Sorrento and Amalfi area. Today there are a huge number of little shops that make this liqueur by macerating lemon skins in alcohol, sticking scrupulously to old recipes from the local tradition. Demand for the Sorrento Lemon is constant, thanks to its highly valued properties and, consequently, the prices are always decidedly higher than (and sometimes double) that of ordinary lemons on the market. Equally valued qualifications have brought prestige and credit to the Amalfi Coast Lemon, also gratified with the much-deserved IGP recognition in July 2001. The presence of lemons on the Amalfi Coast is documented in several places from the eleventh century onwards. Later on, the famous Medical School of Salerno played an important role in its success when it began to spread the medicinal use of this yellow citrus fruit, which was grown all over the Amalfi Coast. However, it was in the nineteenth century that the lemon took on great economic and social value/or the whole area, thanks to the creation of terraced lemon groves in the surrounding hills. At the beginning of the twentieth century the lemon from Maiori was even quoted on the New York stock exchange. At that time lemons were sold singly, they were handled by women who had to cut their nails every morning and had to wear cotton gloves. In that period more than 900 thousand crates containing 300-360 pieces each were sent all over the world every year. This splendid lemon is mainly known by the name of the variety, Sfusato Amalfitano, where the first term refers to the typical tapered shape. It is medium-large, with a thick, rough, light-yellow skin, an intense aroma, thanks to its considerable richness in essential oils, and a pleasant flavour. The flesh is juicy, moderately tart, with a low number of seeds. It is also one of the richest lemons in ascorbic acid (vitamin C), as results from recent studies at the Federico II University of Naples. The production area of the Costa D'Amalfi Lemon includes all the communes on the Amalfi Coast, in the province of Salerno, and occupies a surface area of over 500 hectares, with an annual production of about 120,000 quintals. As well as commercial success and international renown, the Sfusato Amalfitano also shares typical elements in common with its 'brother' from Sorrento: late production (from March to October), terrace cultivation in calcareous stone that characterises the landscape, the use of straw mats to protect the lemon trees from the elements and a regular ripening period. Also the Sfusato Amalfitano lemons are used to make Limoncello, the "traditional liqueur of Costa D'Amalfi Lemons" and the Consortium for the exploitation of Amalfi Coast Lemons (COVAL) has laid down rules/or its production.

Arancia di Sorrento

(Orange of Sorrento)

Oranges and lemons were already an important source of income for the SorrentoAmalfi Peninsula as far back as 1300 and fed

an intense flow of direct export to the main Italian and European markets. The two species have dominated alternately through the centuries. This has depended on the ups and downs of the market, which have made farmers turn to one crop or the other and sometimes make unwise change backs. Consequently it is necessary to reorganise local citrus growing today, as its importance for the landscape is invaluable. The Sorrento orange and the lemon share the same cultivation technique: wooden stakes (usually made of chestnut wood from the surrounding areas) are used and may be anything up to 7 metres in height. Straw mats are arranged over the top (the traditional "pagliarelle") to form a cover that can be replaced or used with nets and windbreaks to protect against the wind and cold. This cover delays the ripening of the fruit, which can be sold at a later period than other Italian oranges, thus allowing wider profit margins. From the mother cultivar, "Biondo comune", two local ecotypes have reproduced and gradually become established: the "Biondo Sorrentino" and the "Biondo Equense". Both are vigorous, upward-growing plants, which often reach 7 metres in height. The fruit are an orange-yellow colour of varying intensity and large in size (the Sorrento is the larger), with medium-thick skin, numerous, seedless segments and sweet, juicy flesh. The harvest begins in May and continues to the beginning of August for the fruit that develops from the later flowering. A syrup can be made by macerating the Sorrento oranges, it has a rich aroma and flavour and is on the regional list of traditional products. The Consortium for the protection of the Sorrento Lemon has turned its attention to the excellent juice of this orange in order to attain DOP recognition (Protected Denomination of Origin).

Noce di Sorrento

(Walnut of Sorrento)

There is evidence that the walnut has been present in Campania since at least the first century AD. In Herculaneum, the charred remains of very similar shaped nuts to those of today have been found in the Casa D'Argo, while at Pompeii, paintings portraying walnuts have come to light in the Misteri Villa. The soil and climate in Campania are particularly favourable to the cultivation of this crop and have enabled it to spread over most of the plains and hills. It is not a coincidence that the most cultivated and valued Italian variety of walnut originated in Campania: it is the Sorrento cultivar, native to the Sorrento Peninsula where it has found a habitat with ideal environmental

characteristics for the robust and harmonious development of the tree. It has gradually spread from here to the classic fruit-farming areas of all the provinces of Campania (the majority with the suitable volcanic soil in the province of Naples), giving rise to a wide range of ecotypes, all known as the Sorrento Walnut, although there are two that are the most widely cultivated and marketed. There are two main types of Sorrento walnut which differ in shape: one has an elongated, regular and slightly pointed shell (the "pointed beard") at the top and rounded off at the base whilst the other is smaller and more rounded. The cultivation techniques, inspired by traditional growing methods, and the organoleptic character are the same for both types. In both cases the shell is light-coloured, not very wrinkled and thin enough to be broken with light pressure. The kernel - i.e. the edible part of the walnut - is cream coloured, not very oily, (though it can be preserved well for a certain period), substantial, soft and crunchy, with an extremely pleasant flavour and an unusual aroma and aftertaste, both when eaten fresh and after a period of preservation. The kernel also boasts a peculiar quality: unlike other types of walnut, it can be easily extracted whole, which makes it popular with the confectionery industry. Cultivation of the Sorrento walnut in recent decades has gradually moved from its origin on the Sorrento coast (mainly the communes of Vico Equense and Monti Lattari) to the fertile areas of the Nolano-Palmese-Sarnese countryside, Campi Flegrei, Vesuvius, Vallo di Lauro e Baianese, Valle Caudina, as well as the Caserta Plain and the Irno Valley. The very first Sorrento walnuts are sold, still unripe, in Campania at the end of August and beginning of September, and they really are a speciality. The manual harvest is concentrated in the months of September and October, after which the walnuts are left to dry in the open, on trellises, in ventilated areas. The enviable qualities of this walnut make it an excellent ingredient for many recipes: it is delicious when eaten, for example, with home-made bread and the unripe walnuts are macerated in alcohol to make the famous Nocino, a dark, sweetly aromatic and digestive liqueur. The long-awaited IGP recognition (Protected Geographical Indication) is finally on its way for the excellent Sorrento Walnut, which is so appreciated by the market and has such close links with its traditional cultivation area. The Region has already started the preliminary studies for the production regulations and for all the documentation needed to apply for registration. This will help to protect and exploit this crop, which is more and more exposed to competition from foreign produce on the world market.

Pomodoro di Sorrento

(Tomato of Sorrento)

This large, round, ribbed eating tomato is light red in colour, verging on pink with green hues when harvested, it is very fleshy and firm and has a sweet, delicate flavour. Today the main

production area of the Sorrento tomato coincides with its native land and is a limited hilly area on the Sorrento peninsula, in the communes of Piano di Sorrento and S. Agnello. It is these farms that have reproduced the "Sorrento ecotype", which was probably derived by selection from the "Cuore di bue" or "bull's heart" tomato (so-called due to its shape).According to others however, the cultivation of this variety was developed at the beginning of the twentieth century, when the Sorrento shipowners, who shipped lemons to the Americas, imported the seed directly from the New World. Since the beginning of the nineties, when demand increased, this tomato has also been grown in limited areas of plains in the communes near Vesuvius, such as Gragnano, Boscoreale and Torre Annunziata (though the tomato has slightly different pomological and organoleptic characteristics to the Sorrento tomato grown in the traditional production area). The Sorrento tomato owes some of its success to the famous Caprese salad, the classic dish of tomatoes, basil and local fiordilatte cheese (mozzarella) from the Lattari Mountains. The renewed and considerable interest that this product has raised with local vegetable farmers has lead to the setting up of a promotional committee to apply for the IGP brand (Protected Geographical Indication). http://tasteofsorrento.sorrentoinfo.com/prodotti/pomodoro_sorrento_eng.asp