APULICA / FRUIT, VEGETABLES AND PULSES
Melannurca Campana (Annurca apple)
PGI · Fruit, vegetables and pulses · Campania
In brief
- It covers the fresh apple of the Annurca and Annurca Rossa del Sud ecotypes, grown in 137 municipalities across Campania's five provinces. (Qualigeo — Melannurca Campana IGP)
- The apples are picked still green and redden on the ground in melai, soft beds where they are turned towards the light from time to time. (Qualigeo — Melannurca Campana IGP)
- Picking and reddening must be completed by 15 December. (Qualigeo — Melannurca Campana IGP)
- It already appears in paintings at Herculaneum, and Pliny the Elder traced it to the Pozzuoli area. (Qualigeo — Melannurca Campana IGP)
History and origin
The Annurca apple has been in Campania for at least two thousand years. Paintings from the excavations of Herculaneum, notably in the House of the Stags, show fruit that tradition identifies as Annurca, a sign of its link with the Roman world and the Campania felix.
Its place of origin is said to be the countryside around Pozzuoli. Pliny the Elder, in his Natural History, calls it «Mala Orcula», because it grew around the Orcus, the underworld that myth placed at Lake Avernus. In 1583 Giovan Battista della Porta, describing the red-skinned, sweet apples of Pozzuoli, wrote that they were commonly called «orcole». Hence the names «anorcola» and «annorcola», until 1876, when the name Annurca officially appears in G. A. Pasquale's Manual of Arboriculture.
Long grown in the Phlegraean and Vesuvian areas, often on small farms alongside vegetables and other fruit trees, in the twentieth century it spread to the Aversa, Maddaloni and Benevento areas, then to the Agro nocerino, the Irno valley, the Picentini and the Alto Casertano. The PGI has been registered since 2006.
Sources: Qualigeo — Melannurca Campana IGP · Regione Campania — Melannurca Campana IGP · eAmbrosia — Melannurca Campana (PGI-IT-0193)
Area and method of production
The production area covers 137 municipalities in all five Campanian provinces. According to the Region, the most productive areas are the Giugliano-Phlegraean zone near Naples, the Maddaloni, Aversa and Alto Casertano areas, the Valle Caudina-Telesina and Taburno near Benevento, and the Irno and Picentini near Salerno. The permitted ecotypes are Annurca and Annurca Rossa del Sud, a natural mutation that reddens on the tree; up to 10% of other varieties is allowed for pollination.
The most original feature is reddening on the ground. The apples are picked by hand while still green, before full ripeness, and laid out in «melai», small plots no more than a metre and a half wide, arranged to avoid standing water and covered with a soft layer: once hemp, today pine needles, wood shavings or other plant material.
Here the fruit stays for 20 to 50 days, protected by hail and shade nets, with the less coloured side facing the light; farmers turn the apples periodically and remove damaged ones by hand. Picking and reddening must be completed by 15 December.
Sources: Qualigeo — Melannurca Campana IGP · Regione Campania — Melannurca Campana IGP
How to recognise it
The Annurca is a small to medium apple, flattened and round, sometimes short and conical, slightly asymmetrical, with a short stalk. The skin is smooth and waxy, yellow or yellowish-green depending on the ecotype, with a russeted area around the stalk; the red blush, which covers 60-70% of the surface at ripeness, reaches 80-90% after reddening in the melai.
The flesh is white, firm, compact and crisp, juicy, sweet and pleasantly tart, with a fine, distinctive scent: the balance of acidity and sugar gives it the flavour that earned it the nickname «queen of apples».
The Campania Region notes that it is rich in vitamins, minerals and fibre.
Sources: Qualigeo — Melannurca Campana IGP · Regione Campania — Melannurca Campana IGP
In the kitchen
The Annurca keeps best in the cool; before eating it, leave it at room temperature for a while so that it releases its full scent. It is excellent raw, as a crisp, juicy table apple.
It is also used for fruit juices and liqueurs, and in pastry it is the main ingredient of tarts and sfogliatelle. The simplest traditional dessert is baked apples, which bring out its firm, tart flesh.
A regional food education programme also features the apple, offering it peeled and sliced to children visiting Città della Scienza in Naples.
Sources: Qualigeo — Melannurca Campana IGP · Regione Campania — Melannurca Campana IGP
Where to taste it
The Annurca is found throughout Campania, but some areas are its heartland: the Phlegraean Fields and the Giugliano area, where the apple was born; the Caserta area, from Maddaloni and Aversa to the Alto Casertano, today the most intensively farmed; the Valle Caudina, Valle Telesina and Taburno near Benevento; the Irno valley and the Picentini Mountains near Salerno.
Autumn is the best season to see the melai: between harvest and mid-December the apples on the ground change colour day by day under the nets. The protection consortium is based in Caserta.
Anyone taking some home should keep them at low temperature and bring them back to room temperature shortly before eating.
Sources: Regione Campania — Melannurca Campana IGP · Qualigeo — Melannurca Campana IGP
Protection
- Protected geographical indication (PGI) — PGI-IT-0193 (eAmbrosia — Melannurca Campana (PGI-IT-0193))
When
- The sources consulted give no months.
Where
Read more
Melannurca Campana PGI
Melannurca Campana PGI: two varieties, Annurca and Rossa del Sud, 137 Campanian towns, hand picking and compulsory reddening on the melai by 15 December.
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