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Capitignano parsnip

Slow Food Presidium · Fruit, vegetables and pulses · Abruzzo

Apulica editorial team · Sources checked:

In brief

History and origin

Parsnip is an ancient root, once also grown in the mountains of the L'Aquila area. With the arrival of the potato its cultivation shrank sharply, almost to the point of disappearing.

In Capitignano it survived thanks to a specific link with Christmas. By village tradition, the Christmas Eve dinner is made up of seven vegetable dishes, and one of them is parsnip. Some families therefore kept sowing it in their home gardens for their own use.

Today production is small and the parsnip is found with the few remaining growers, rarely on local markets. The Slow Food Presidium was set up to support them, gradually revive growing and eating it, and use this signature product to add value to the farming of an area hit hard by the earthquake and at risk of depopulation. Several residents keep the seed.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pastinaca di Capitignano

Area and method of production

Capitignano is a small municipality at 900 metres in the Alto Aterno, the highest part of the valley of the river Aterno, north-west of L'Aquila on the border with Lazio. Its territory lies partly within the Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga National Park.

Parsnip needs well-drained soil with few stones. It is sown in spring, once the risk of late frosts has passed; to protect it from severe cold, farmers cover the ground with straw.

It is harvested by hand from November until early March. The roots are stored with other vegetables or in crates, mixed with damp river sand, somewhere dark such as a cellar.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pastinaca di Capitignano

How to recognise it

The Capitignano parsnip looks like a carrot, but it is creamy white and has intricate branching that recalls ginger.

It is a local ecotype that has adapted to the climate and soils of Capitignano. Its branched shape is one of the traits that set it apart, along with its sweet and distinctive flavour.

It is available fresh in the cold months, from November to early March, and keeps for a long time in damp sand, as village families do.

It is grown by a few producers, and several villagers keep its seed. Harvested by hand, it keeps for a long time in crates of damp river sand, in the dark.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pastinaca di Capitignano

In the kitchen

The traditional recipe belongs to Christmas Eve: parsnip sautéed in a pan with garlic, oil and chilli, one of the seven vegetable dishes of the Capitignano dinner.

It is a simple dish that sets the sweetness of the root against the heat of the chilli and the fragrance of garlic.

Since its rediscovery, new recipes are also being tried in the village, to take the parsnip beyond the feast day to which it has always been tied.

It is precisely its place among the seven vegetables of the Christmas Eve dinner that saved it: families kept sowing it in their gardens to serve it at Christmas.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pastinaca di Capitignano

Where to taste it

The place is Capitignano, in the Alto Aterno north-west of L'Aquila, in an area partly within the Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga National Park.

The season is winter: the parsnip is harvested from November to early March, and it is most present in homes around Christmas. It is found with the village's few producers and only rarely on local markets.

Visitors to L'Aquila can travel up the Aterno valley towards the mountain villages on the border with Lazio, and discover in winter a product that still lives within a family tradition.

The area was hit hard by the earthquake, and the Presidium sees the parsnip as a way to restore value to its farming.

Sources: Fondazione Slow Food — Presidio Pastinaca di Capitignano

Protection

When

Where

Abruzzo