Unique delicacy
To the right and left of winding road 284, which leads along the western flank of the volcano Etna from Catania to the town of Bronte, are dense green trees with bright spots. Whoever cranks down the windows of the car hears soft voices. Curious, we open one of the garden gates - and stand in the middle of a pistachio plantation.
The bushy trees grow up to six meters high with the winding trunks. Their fruits are breathtakingly beautiful. So that's how pistachios look! They have a velvet coat that shimmers pink-white when the fruit is ripe. In thick grapes, the nuts are hanging in the leathery foliage. The tree roots have dug deep into the fertile, nutrient-rich lava soil of Sicily.
The pistachio harvest takes place in late summer. The fruits are processed, for example, in pistachio balls or cookies.
The Brontese Pistachio, more specifically the Pistacia Terebinthus, bears its delicious fruit here in the Bronte area. They are elongated and have an emerald-green core, which surrounds a ruby-red skin. Thanks to the volcanic soil, the nut contains a lot of minerals, vitamins and aromas. "Nowhere else in the world does such a pistachio grow - just on the hills between Etna and the Monti Nebrodi," says Biagio Schilirò, director of the Brontese Pistachio Consortium. He peels the velvet coat from the fruit, cracking the core with a lava dry and plucking the skin off. "Just try!"
Delicately nutty and fruity at the same time. Too bad to bath in salt. The Sicilians also do not want to compete with the mass-produced pistachios from Iran and Turkey. There's a reason their pistachios are always salted, they say with a wink. "The Brontes pistachio is a noble product," explains Biagio Schilirò emphatically.
Like most of the long-established Brontese, he owns his own pistachio plot, which he manages on a part-time basis. Loci are called these fields here on Etna. Latin for "places". It was not the Romans but the Arabs who brought pistachios to Sicily. In the local dialect they are therefore still called "frastuca", after the Arabic word "fustuq" (for: fruit).
Farmer Piergrazia Licandro produces regional specialties in organic quality, such as nougat, cream and pesto with pistachios.
A pistachio tree is up to 100 years old. The trees are not watered, and harvested only every two years. In the year of rest, the farmers only snap off the dead shoots and old fruit stands, so that all the energy of the tree benefits the fruits of the following year. The harvest is hard work, because in late summer, it is still burning hot in northwestern Sicily. Sweating, the farm workers balancing on the sharp black floes of cooled lava. They reach into the resinous tree with their hands and brush the fruit into a cloth bag, which they loosely hang in the old manner. Up to 20 kilos creates a farm worker from early morning until late afternoon. After that, the nuts are spread out in the sun, cracked and peeled.
At the time of the Pistachio Festival, cookies are baked in all the kitchens in Bronte.
The town of Bronte with its barely 20,000 inhabitants seems to be dead in the pistachio harvest season. It is 760 meters high, directly on the slope of Etna. From the hotel "Parco dell'Etna" you can see the magnificent volcanic mountain very well. In the morning he rises in the back light, and his snowy top lies in silver haze. Huge black lava rocks in the middle of the city remind everyone of the unpredictability of nature. Three times in the past 350 years Bronte was destroyed in an eruption of Etna. The last time 1843. Even visitors feel the hardness of life here. And are all the more enthusiastic about the cheerfulness of the people. Although pistachios are only harvested every two years, every year at the end of September, the Brontese celebrate a feast in honor of their favorite nut: "La Sagra del Pistacchio", the annual pistachio fair. The exact date is the community two months previously announced on its website (www.comune.bronte.ct.it) under "Eventi".
In the sports bar in Bronte, there is pistachio kipferl for espresso.
Anyone who harvests pistachios will show what they can do with it. With the friendly family Saitta, who runs the sports bar in Bronte, one can taste deliciously tender pistachio kipferl. It is also available from Piergrazia Licandro, a trained farmer who organizes her fields ecologically. She likes to make guests taste her pistachio pesto or the sweet pistachio cream that tastes so delicious as a spread, and of course, her homemade torrone, the famous Sicilian pistachio nougat. And if you need a bit of cooling, refresh yourself with a light green pistachio ice cream.
200 tons of pistachios are harvested every two years by the Brontese.About 20 percent of them are exported to Germany. That has been more, but the price pressure of the competition has been bothering the Brontese for years.
Biagio Schiriliò hopes that will change again soon. The Brontese pistachio is more expensive than others, but it is also much more delicate and aromatic - prominent fans such as the British Crown Prince Charles, who recently had a snack and was thrilled by the emerald delights at a fair in Turin, testify to this.
Brontese pistachios to order
Freshly harvested nuts dry laid out in the sun.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN readers can order genuine Brontes pistachios - naturally unsalted and without peel. Available are three pack sizes:
100 grams (7.90 euros) 200 grams (14 euros) 300 grams (19 euros)
The shipping costs 6 euros.
To order via: City and More, Am Markbach 13, 76547 Sinzheim / Baden-Baden, Tel. 072 21/99 28 99, Fax 99 28 88, E-Mail: info@cityandmore.de, Web address: www.cityandmore.de
Keyword: ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN pistachios
recipes
Whether in the incomparable ice cream or to roast - the pistachio is versatile.
Pistachio ice cream - 4 servings
75 g pistachio kernels 1 organic lemon 1 tbsp acacia honey 1 vanilla pod 400 g sour cream 100 g whipped cream 100 g sugar may be used to garnish berries
Finely chop the pistachios. Rinse the lemon hot, dab dry and finely rub the skin. Squeeze out the juice. Stir pistachios, lemon zest and juice and honey into a paste. Cut the vanilla pod lengthways and scrape out the pith. Mix vanilla pulp, sour cream, whipped cream and sugar. Let the mixture cool for 10 minutes. Stir in the pistachio paste and pour everything into the ice cream maker. Freeze until creamy in about 20 minutes. Form the ice into balls with an ice-cream shaper and arrange in small bowls. Maybe garnish with berry fruits.
Ready in 50 minutes, per portion about 415 kcal, E 7 g, F 28 g, KH 35 g
Pistachio balls - 45 pieces
80 g sugar 1 packet vanilla sugar 125 g soft butter 1 egg 75 g unsalted pistachio kernels 250 g flour 1/2 sachet baking powder 1 pinch of ground cardamom 1 tbsp rum 125 g icing sugar for rolling
Mix the sugar, vanilla sugar and butter creamy with the whisk of the hand mixer. Embeze the egg. Finely grind pistachios in the lightning chopper. Mix with flour, baking powder and cardamom and gradually knead together with the rum under the butter-sugar mixture. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees, convection 160 degrees, gas level 3. Roll the dough with hands to cherry-sized balls. Roll in powdered sugar on a flat plate. Place balls of dough at a slight distance from each other on baking sheets lined with baking paper and bake in the oven for about 10-15 minutes. Remove the cookies from the tin and let them cool on a wire rack.
Ready in 45 minutes, per piece about 70 kcal, E 1 g, F 3 g, KH 9 g
Tip: After baking, roll the balls again in powdered sugar or sprinkle with them.
Pistachio and almond cookies - about 25 pieces
200 g peeled almonds 100 g pistachio kernels 250 g finest sugar 2 egg whites 2 packets Bourbon vanilla sugar Possibly 25 beautiful pistachio kernels to garnish
Mix almonds and pistachios and grind them in portions with a little sugar in the lightning chopper or in the food processor as finely as possible. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees, convection 140 degrees, gas level 2. Beat the egg white and vanilla sugar with the whisk of the hand mixer until stiff. Stir in the almond and pistachio sugar mixture and place the dough in a piping bag with a large perforated nozzle. On baking sheets designed with baking paper, sprinkle about 2-3 cm round cookies from the dough. Garnish the cookies with a pistachio at will. Bake in preheated oven for about 20 minutes. Remove the cookies and allow to cool completely on the plate. Then carefully lift from the plate.
Ready in 40 minutes, per piece about 125 kcal, E 3 g, F 7 g, KH 12 g
Pistachio Sprinkle to Spaghetti - 4 servings
2 tbsp pistachio nuts 1/2 tsp pink peppercorns 1 / 2-1 tsp coarse sea salt 3 stems thyme 1/2 organic lemon
Chop the pistachios. Roughly crushed pink peppercorns and salt in a mortar. Rinse thyme, shake dry and pluck the leaves. Roughly chop thyme. Rinse the lemon hot, dab dry well and finely grind about 1 tsp. Mix all prepared ingredients and sprinkle over the dish just before serving.
Ready in 10 minutes, per portion about 65 kcal, E 2 g, F 6 g, KH 2 g
In addition: spaghetti
Tip: Also tastes good over fresh salad.
Pork medallions with pistachio bonnet - 4 servings
50 g dried soft apricots 75 ml apple juice 50 g pistachio kernels 50 g noble mushroom cheese (eg Bavaria blue) 2 tbsp breadcrumbs salt freshly ground pepper 600 g pork tenderloin 2 tbsp butter lard for frying
Dice the apricots very finely and soak in the apple juice for 10 minutes. Finely chop the pistachios. Drain the apricots and make a coarse paste with the pistachios, cheese and bread crumbs. Season with salt and pepper and chill. Rinse the meat, dab dry well, cut into 2 cm thick slices and tie with kitchen yarn to medallions. Heat the clarified butter in a pan and fry the slices of meat from each side for about 3 minutes.Season with salt and pepper after turning. When the meat is fried, remove from the pan and place in an ovenproof dish. Spread the pistachio-apricot mixture on top. Preheat the grill and grill the pork fillet for about 3 minutes until the hood starts to brown. Serve immediately.
Ready in 30 minutes, per portion about 365 kcal, E 39 g, F 16 g, KH 14 g
In addition: potato and carrot puree
Tip: The pistachio bonnet also tastes good with fish fillet or vegetables (eg zucchini slices, halved tomatoes)
