We made a quick visit to Capo Vaticano. It’s a beautiful spot on the Italian coast.
The colour of the sea in this region was pretty magical.
The tour guide made it clear that despite its name it was nothing to do with the Vatican. Rather, the area around it seems to be most famous for growing “Rosse di Tropea” - the red onions of Tropea.
To quote Italy Magazine:
The onion’s extraordinary sweetness, its delicate scent, its lightness and enjoyable taste, which derive from the morphological peculiarities of the soil and microclimate where it is grown, make it a much sought after ingredient by gourmets and chefs.
And they’re not wrong! They are surprisingly delicious, just eaten raw. Not something I’d usually expect of an onion. Recommended.
In Britain we’d need to import the finished onion though. Apparently just growing some locally from seed won’t do the job at all; it’s all about the conditions of the local land.
But, whilst there were many nearby stalls selling the onion, the most obvious plant life at the place we stopped was what looked to be prickly pear cactuses.
I didn’t think to sample the fruit, although it sounds like they’re perfectly palatable if you’re careful about removing all the spines.
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