Fruit, vegetables and pulses

Castellammare violet artichoke

Castellammare violet artichoke: an early Stabia crop, pale and tender under terracotta

An early type of Romanesco, the violet artichoke grows on the plain around Castellammare di Stabia, Gragnano and Pompeii, where Bourbon-era farm manuals already called it primaticcio for its head start. Thornless, with large round heads, its first pickings come at the end of February. It is a Slow Food Presidium and a PAT traditional agri-food product of Campania.

• Big, globe-shaped, thornless heads whose green bracts fade into pink and violet
• The first head traditionally ripens under a terracotta pignatta, which keeps it paler and softer
• The central mammarelle, picked from February into March, are the most prized of the crop

How to enjoy it. On Easter Monday it goes whole into the embers, is stripped of its charred leaves and dressed with garlic, parsley, salt, pepper and oil. Preserved in oil it outlasts its short spring, and sits well beside Lattari salame and soppressata.

Production areas

Campania

Season

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