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APULICA / FRUIT, VEGETABLES AND PULSES

Fico Bianco del Cilento (dried white fig)

PDO · Fruit, vegetables and pulses · Campania

Apulica editorial team · Sources checked:

In brief

History and origin

The fig reached the Cilento very early: according to the documentation of the designation it was introduced before the 6th century BC, by the Greek colonists who founded several cities along these coasts. In Roman times Cato, and later Varro, wrote that dried figs were a staple food for farm workers in the Cilento and Lucania.

By the fifteenth century the trade was already flourishing: the «Quaterno doganale delle marine del Cilento» of 1486 records dried figs shipped to the main Italian markets as a fine food. Living alongside this plant for millennia has left its mark on local sayings, stories and folk tales.

Once called the «bread of the poor», because once dried it kept all year and fed families in hard times, the fig has gradually become a sought-after product, tied above all to the Christmas season. Together with the olive tree it is the icon of Cilento's farming culture. The PDO was registered in 2006.

Sources: Qualigeo — Fico Bianco del Cilento DOP · Regione Campania — Fico bianco del Cilento DOP · eAmbrosia — Fico Bianco del Cilento (PDO-IT-0282)

Area and method of production

The production area covers 68 municipalities south of Salerno, from the coastal hills of Agropoli to the Bussento, mostly inside the Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park. The sea tempers the climate, while the Apennines shield it from cold north-easterly winds; with fertile soils and regular rainfall, the setting suits the Dottato variety perfectly.

Trees are traditionally trained as open vases, and today also as bush vases or hedges. Figs to be dried with their skin are picked fully ripe, those to be dried peeled may be picked slightly earlier; harvest usually runs from August to October.

Drying takes place in the sun, helped where needed by plastic tunnels or a quick dip in hot 2% salt water. The figs may then be baked in hot-air ovens, which darkens the skin, or split lengthwise and stuffed with almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, fennel seeds or citrus peel from the same area, up to 10% of the weight. Growing, drying and processing all take place in the area, on many small farms.

Sources: Qualigeo — Fico Bianco del Cilento DOP · Regione Campania — Fico bianco del Cilento DOP

How to recognise it

Fico Bianco del Cilento is a dried fig of the Dottato cultivar, from an ecotype selected over the centuries in the Cilento and known as «Bianco del Cilento». It has an elongated pear shape. The name comes from the colour of the dried skin, an even pale yellow; oven-baked figs range from amber yellow to brown, while peeled figs are very pale, almost white.

The flesh is soft and dense, amber yellow and very sweet, with mostly hollow seeds and an almost entirely full interior: features regarded as excellent among dried figs.

It is sold plain, with or without skin, or stuffed, in packs of various shapes, cylinders, crowns, balls or bags, and also in the old way, loose in baskets of plant material. A traditional preparation is the «spatole» or «mustaccioli», figs threaded onto two parallel wooden skewers.

Sources: Qualigeo — Fico Bianco del Cilento DOP · Regione Campania — Fico bianco del Cilento DOP

In the kitchen

Once dried, the fig keeps its qualities for a long time; it only needs a cool, dry place. It is eaten plain or stuffed with nuts and fennel seeds, and in the most indulgent versions coated in chocolate or soaked in rum, treats that come into their own especially at Christmas.

Increasingly sought after are figs that are dried and then golden-baked, especially stuffed ones, while peeled figs, very pale and delicate in flavour, are rare because they take a great deal of work.

The fig also features in traditional Campanian recipes, such as the old fig molasses, recently revived: a syrup pressed from the dried fruit, used to dress meat, salads, fish and desserts.

Sources: Qualigeo — Fico Bianco del Cilento DOP · Regione Campania — Fico bianco del Cilento DOP

Where to taste it

The white fig is found throughout the Cilento, from the hills of Agropoli south to the Bussento valley, in the villages of the Cilento, Vallo di Diano and Alburni National Park. Fig trees, alongside olive trees, shape the rural landscape that accompanies visitors on the coast and in the Cilento hinterland.

Between August and October, the months of harvest and drying, is the best time to see the fruit laid out in the sun on farms. The finished product keeps well and can be found all year round, with the widest choice of stuffed and chocolate-coated figs at Christmas.

The protection consortium is based in Prignano Cilento, one of the municipalities in the production area.

Sources: Qualigeo — Fico Bianco del Cilento DOP · Regione Campania — Fico bianco del Cilento DOP · Parco Nazionale del Cilento, Vallo di Diano e Alburni

Protection

When

Where

Campania

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