The Joy of Sicilian IGP Blood Oranges from Centuripe 🍊

+ two unique blood orange recipes to bring a little of Sicily into your home

I prepare our evening meal, usually light, and dessert is invariably an assortment of fresh fruit including fresh squeezed orange juice - when Sicilian blood oranges are in season.

My husband is the post-dinner fruit man and like so many Europeans he's a masterful and artistic fruit peeler. It may sound crazy, but that was one of the things I fell in love with about him.

He peels so effortlessly and with such flair it's a pleasure to watch. If I'm on my own and peeling fruit, my hands are often covered with juice, and dripping down my arms all the way to my elbows. Hence, I marvel at an elegant fruit peeler.

Fresh squeezed orange juice – spremuta – is something I thoroughly enjoy when delicious Sicilian blood oranges are in season. It’s one of the true pleasures of my day.

My husband and I food-shop together, with my husband in charge of selecting the very best fruit.

Recently he's decided to buy our blood oranges from a once-a-week fruit stand in the main square of our neighboring town, Castelnuovo di Porto. The “stand” is a truck that owner Augusto drives to and from Sicily every weekend to collect Sicilian produce from his hometown, Centuripe, in the Enna province of Sicily, right at the base of Mount Etna. The past couple of weeks I've gone along with my husband to chat with Augusto. Last week Augusto told me all about Centuripe, its local produce, and its annual IGP Sicilian blood orange festival that was just held last month.

Photo Credit

It's a 10 hour trip each way and I briefly contemplated going along with him for his weekend roundtrip drive to Centuripe, but Augusto strongly advised me against it. He says the trip is pretty rough going in his produce truck.

We buy dozens of his oranges each week and after my chat with Augusto, I decided to take advantage of the seasonality of these magnificent blood oranges and showcase them and their magnificent flavor in two delicious recipes: a Sicilian Blood Orange Risotto and a Sicilian Blood Orange Almond Upside-down Cake.