More from the Frutta e Verdura

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, with the coming of fall a whole new crop of unusual crops have hit our local fruit and veggie store. Many of them are things I have never heard of before. In some ways, that isn't unusual. I can go to the International Food Zone around the corner in Springfield and find dozens of South American and Asian root vegetables I have never heard of, let alone have any idea of how to prepare them or what they taste like. But for some reason, cultural bias I suppose, I feel like I should know what you can eat in Italy. After all, I've eaten in Italian restaurants all my life.

On to the most recent items. First is the miagawa. When Amy and I first noticed these in the store, Laura, the proprietress, noted our interest and immediately came over. She picked one up, peeled it open and offered it to us. Free of charge. That is the way it works once you have established a relationship. As she described it, it is a cross between a grapefruit and a clementine. It is picked and eaten anywhere from green to orange. When green, it definitely tastes grapefruit-like with a touch more sweet. When it is orange, it is definitely clementine-like but with a touch of pucker. We eat them regularly now and will continue to as long as they are in season or something else catches our fancy.

Next up is the carciofi or artichoke. These aren't really unusual at all. But, the timing is. Artichokes come into season in February so these are unusual. We still haven't bought any. We don't have a deep-fat fryer which is one of the preferred methods of cooking them.

Next is the mela cotonne, also called the pera cotonne. This translates as cotton apple or cotton pear. We found them growing on our walk down the Francigena and since the tree came over the fence and into the road it was perfectly legal to pick them. We shouldn't have bothered. Apparently we don't know the proper way to prepare them because they pretty much sucked.

Finally, there is the tapinambur. No real clue what these are, but Amy googled them and they are Jerusalem artichokes, kind of potato-like as long as you don't eat so much of them that the fiber flushes you out.