Persimmon Love 🧡

This autumn in Sicily as we arrived back home after our usual morning visit to the beach with Daisy we bumped into our neighbour whilst parking our car. The usual pleasantries were exchanged.

It was the first time we had seen him since we had arrived back home in Sicily and so he asked “Quando sei arrivato, oggi?” (“Did you arrive today?”), we replied “No, Siamo arriviti sabato sera” (“No, we arrived on Saturday evening”), he explained that he had just come home from his land in the countryside and then handed us a tray of fruit and said “Questo è per te, bentornato a casa” (“This is for you then, welcome home”) we peeped under the piece of newspaper that was covering the fruit and discovered that they were persimmons.

Food always is the best welcome home gift in Sicily. It is quite often that we get a visit by who we call the “Lemon Fairy” and find a bag of lemons left on our street door knocker.

Our lovely neighbour told us that in Italian the word for persimmons is “Cachi”.

Cachi are usually in season between October to January, so are considered an autumnal winter fruit and they usually ripen when the temperature drops. You will see them in abundance in Sicily at this time of year in markets and being sold on the side of the road on fruit and vegetable trucks.

When ripe and firm they can taste unpleasant and are best enjoyed fully ripened when the inside of the fruit resembles a satin like jelly and can be eaten by hand or with a spoon. They have a yellow orange flesh and some would say that they resemble a tomato. The ones we had just been gifted were ready to enjoy and looked tangy and sweet and oh so juicy.

We placed our tray of exotic fruit on the top of Daisy’s buggy, which included a cute tiny aubergine he had also given us and headed home with a warning from our neighbour not to eat them on an empty stomach because this type of fruit are high in tannin and therefore acidic.

I knew exactly what I was going to make with them.

Persimmons are a good source of vitamins A and C as well as manganese, which helps the blood to clot. They also have other antioxidants, which help reduce the risk of many serious health conditions including cancer and strokes. One persimmon contains approximately 118 calories. One component of persimmons, its tannin rich fibre, has proven particularly effective in treating high cholesterol and they can help keep your arteries clear and reduce the risk of heart disease.

Persimmons in Greek mythology were known as “The Fruit of the Gods”.

Thought to have originated in Asia, this fruit is said that it may have first arrived in Sicily in the 16th century.

Folklore says that Persimmons could be used to predict the weather. Legend says that if you split open a locally grown fruit and the shape inside (called a cotyledon) looks like one of the following shapes, it can forecast the winter ahead. If it is fork shaped winter will be mild, spoon shaped there will be a lot of snow and knife shaped winter will be bitingly cold and will “cut like a knife”. Personally I would hope for a mild Sicilian winter although Mount Etna is known to have a layer of snow from October to March.

I had always dreamed of having a Mediterranean kitchen and so when we bought our Sicilian house it was a dream come true and I love cooking in my Sicilian kitchen with a sea view. I also love making jam and as my regular Blog followers will know my forte is blackberry and lime jam, made with berries that I pick from brambles behind our home in London in summertime. My idea was to make a lovely persimmon jam with the perfect combination of Sicilian lemon. A jar of jam would be a lovely idea to reciprocate back to my neighbour and it was perfect timing as we had just received a delivery from our lemon fairy.

Adding acid in the form of lemon or lime juice and zest in jam making is important for two reasons, first it makes a more well balanced jam returning some of the acidity lost from the addition of sugar, secondly pectin needs acid to firm up the jam. Citrus fruits like lemons, grapefruits, oranges and limes contain the most natural pectin.

I used my same formula for making my blackberry and lime jam …

I used a quota of 1kg of fruit to 1kg of granulated sugar. I added the zest and squeezed the juice of one ripe Sicilian lemon which really does give the jam a special kick. I heated the fruit slowly in a big heavy saucepan, added the sugar until it dissolved and then left it on a low rolling boil stirring it occasionally until I can dip a metal spoon in and put a drop on a cold ceramic plate. When the jam feels like jelly and firm on the plate I know its ready and I can then transfer the jam to clean sterile jars to settle.

First my fruit had to be prepared and peeled and cut into small pieces and having a jelly like consistency this was tricky work with slippery sticky fingers so what better place to carry out my preparation than on my roof terrace in the Sicilian sunshine whilst topping up my autumnal tan.

I knew the perfect way to use my jam by using it as a filling in a homemade crostata, a rustic Italian version of a sweet fruit filled pie. A crostata is great for breakfast or dessert with a scoop of gelato.

I saved a jar of my persimmon and lemon jam to bring back to London and having saved a slice of homemade crostata for my friend Philippa she exclaimed “I don’t know what kind of fruit that jam is made from but it tastes absolutely heavenly!!!!”

My reply ????

“Exactly, it is made from the fruit of the gods!!!!”

Oh and in case you are wondering I could not really ascertain the shape inside my persimmons, I was thinking maybe fork shaped so maybe there will be snow on Mount Etna for the whole of this winter season, a perfect excuse for volcanic skiing adventures.

I hope you enjoy my photos, by the way I have added a photo of the view from my kitchen whilst cooking !!!!