Savona’s Chinotto is a Slow Food Presidium and is a fruit with a very special flavor grown exclusively in Liguria, between Varazze and Finale Ligure, of which very few plants are now cultivated.
Discover Savona’s Chinotto in our news!
Friends of Pesto Fresco, our journey among Slow Food’s Presidia in Liguriacontinues and today we are talking about Savona’s Chinotto.
Listed as a Traditional Food Product (PAT), Savona’s Chinotto is also protected by a Presidium of the non-profit Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity, which is committed to the revival of their cultivation and candying.
Those who still have Savona Chinotto plants in the riparian area have joined the Presidium.
The goal is to revalue these crops, recover land for new authentic Savona chinotto plants, and encourage the rediscovery of a traditional Savona pastry recipe such as candied chinottos.
For these very reasons, a strict specification is enforced, requiring, among other things, the use of only quality raw materials and fruits clearly grown locally.
Savona’s Chinotto: the origins
Famous and unique for its quality and aroma, Savona’s Chinotto is an evergreen plant that is grown only on the Ligurian Riviera, in the specific area between Varazze and Finale Ligure.
Savona’s Chinotto, however, is a plant originally from China that a Savona sailor around 1500 transplanted to the Ligurian coast. Here the plant found an ideal environment that would improve its organoleptic characteristics over time.
Savona chinotto: the characteristics of the fruit
Savona’s Chinotto fruits are small in size and, when ripe, have an orange color and give off an intense and distinctive fragrance.
Savona chinottos are harvested between September and November, and the fruit has a fairly long shelf life.
Savona’s Chinotto, an ideal fruit to enjoy candied
It is an ideal product for candying because of its small size, thick, tough and fragrant skin, and early ripening compared to other varieties.
Do you know who installed the first candying workshop in Liguria?
It was Silvestre-Allemand, who moved to Savona from France in 1877, who opened the first of candying workshops in Liguria, also attracted by the richness and variety of fruit crops in Liguria.
In the wake of this initiative, many local establishments sprang up within a few years, employing French techniques, refining the art of candying and laying the foundation for animportant pastry tradition.
Toward the end of the 1800s, the “Chinotti Cooperative Society” was founded in Savona, which provided both cultivation and processing and sales of the fruit.
These fruits with such a distinctive taste experienced a long and successful period until the 1920s, when a succession of frosts marked the beginning of the crisis.
Unfortunately, the crisis persists almost a hundred years later. Today, in fact, only a few Savona’s Chinotto plants are cultivated and the preservation of the species is entrusted to botanical gardens and nurseries.
Savona chinotto: how to consume it
The fruit is considered a mutation of the bitter orange.
Because of its sour taste, it is not eaten fresh but only candied or processed for making mustards, excellent jams, syrups and delicious drinks.
Among the beverages, new craft beers stand out, many of which are brewed right in the Savona area, using precisely Savona’s Chinotto.
If you haven’t tried it yet, friends of Pesto Fresco and Liguria, don’t miss the opportunity to taste it. You will fall in love with its unique taste!
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