Fruit, vegetables and pulses

Zagarise siccagno cherry tomato

Zagarise siccagno cherry tomato: dry-farmed in the hills of the Presila

On the hills of Zagarise, among the olive groves of the Catanzaro Presila and up to 1,000 metres, this small red tomato grows with no irrigation at all, the soil hoed by hand again and again to hold in moisture. Nearly lost because of its low yields, it was revived by a group of young farmers who made it a Slow Food Presidium in 2022.

• Small and roundish, around 60 grams, in a full, vivid red
• Thick skin and little water, so it traditionally keeps through the winter
• Fleshy and rich in sugars, with an intense sweet-and-sour taste

How to enjoy it. Fresh, it goes into salads and sauces; put up for later, it becomes passata, dried tomatoes or jars of whole and filleted fruit. The last green fruit of the year is pickled with green olives, garlic and fennel in salaturu, a brine every household makes its own way.

Production areas

Calabria

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