APULICA / FRUIT, VEGETABLES AND PULSES
Alife onion
Slow Food Presidium · Fruit, vegetables and pulses · Campania
In brief
- An onion from the Alife plain, grown in Alife, Piedimonte Matese and San Potito Sannitico in the province of Caserta. (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Cipolla di Alife)
- It has a slightly flattened bulb and bright copper-red skin; the taste is sweet, never sharp. (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Cipolla di Alife)
- It is harvested by hand and braided into 'nserte; dried, it keeps until the following spring. (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Cipolla di Alife)
History and origin
The Alife onion is named after the town at the heart of the fertile Alife plain, in the province of Caserta. Its cultivation is very old: a legend dates it to Roman times, when gladiators supposedly rubbed onions on their bodies to firm up their muscles.
In the Middle Ages, when the plain passed to the Lombards, the onion lost none of its importance: it was used to pay rents or given as a gift, and folk medicine used it against headaches and snake bites. At the 1930 International Trade Fair in Milan it was presented by a farmer from Caserta province, Luigi Sasso, who received a certificate of merit for its quality.
As late as 1980 about thirty large growers each produced sixty quintals, sold to traders arriving from Naples and Rome. Today only a few family farms keep it, and the Slow Food Presidium, born from a biodiversity project in the Alto Casertano, aims to revive its cultivation.
Area and method of production
The Presidium covers the municipalities of Alife, Piedimonte Matese and San Potito Sannitico, in the province of Caserta, in the Matese area. This is the territory of the Alto Casertano local action group, made up of often marginal areas that are rich in agricultural biodiversity.
The onion is propagated from small bulbs, set in a seedbed between August and September and transplanted to the open field between January and March. Harvest, by hand, takes place between July and August.
The leaves dry in the field; once they have wilted, the onions are plaited into the characteristic 'nserte, braids of twelve or thirteen up to twenty bulbs, which are then left in the sun to finish drying. They are kept on cane racks leaning upright against a wall, in the shade of a pergola or canopy, for twenty to thirty days before sale.
Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Cipolla di Alife · Regione Campania — Prodotti tradizionali: Cipolla alifana
How to recognise it
The Alife onion has a spheroid bulb, flattened at the poles, and a bright, deep copper skin. It is medium-sized, usually between 200 and 400 grams.
The flesh is crisp and firm, white with violet streaks. The taste is sweet, intense and aromatic, never sharp or pungent, and it has always stood out for its delicacy.
It keeps remarkably well: braided into 'nserte and dried, it lasts until the following spring, and household use can stretch over seven or eight months. Farmers select for this quality when choosing the mother plants.
Sources: Regione Campania — Prodotti tradizionali: Cipolla alifana · Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Cipolla di Alife
In the kitchen
Its sweet, never pungent taste makes it good to eat raw too: it goes into salads and omelettes and is prepared sweet and sour, a preparation that brings out its natural sweetness.
Traditional local cooking uses it in cipollata, a soup with beans, celery, carrot and extra virgin olive oil in which the onion takes centre stage.
Its qualities are especially appreciated in the markets of Caserta province and southern Lazio. Its long keeping in braids means it can stay in the larder for much of the year, ready for everyday cooking.
Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Cipolla di Alife · Regione Campania — Prodotti tradizionali: Cipolla alifana
Where to taste it
Look for the onion in the Presidium villages, Alife, Piedimonte Matese and San Potito Sannitico, between the Alife plain and the slopes of the Matese. The harvest is between July and August, but the dried braids can be found in the following months too.
The 'nserte hanging in the shade, waiting to be sold, are the most typical image of this farming tradition.
Alongside this one, the Alto Casertano biodiversity project also gave rise to the Presidia for the giant lupin of Vairano and the Caiazzo olive: a chance to discover the products of an area stretching from the Matese to Monte Maggiore and Monte Santa Croce.
Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Cipolla di Alife · Regione Campania — Prodotti tradizionali: Cipolla alifana
Protection
- Slow Food Presidium — cipolla-di-alife (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Cipolla di Alife)
When
- Harvest: July–August (Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Cipolla di Alife)
- Summer