Expo/Festival of the Bronte Pistachio 2018

XXIXth edition of Pistachio Festival 28, 29, 30 September - 5, 6, 7 October 2018 in Bronte, the traditional event dedicated to thegreen gold PDO of the Etnean municipality: the pistachio, its gastronomic jewel. During the event will be organised guided tours the historical centre of Bronte, exhibitions, conferences, shows and other side events.

The Bronte Pistachio Expo promotes the exquisite green fruit that grows on the slopes of Mount Etna and the products derived from it. The Bronte pistachio is particularly prized and sought after for its aromatic and pleasant flavour in confectionery, ice cream parlours and to flavour and season many dishes. L'oilextracted from the fruit, is also used in dermatology for its high emollient and softening qualities. But it is clearly in cooking that the pistachio becomes a king. Pistachio is not only synonymous with sweets, but a nutritious condiment for pasta dishes.

At the table
While the reputation of the pistachio pennette has toured Sicily for their goodness, no less delicious is the homemade fresh pasta made with pistachio flour. Desserts, of course, take centre stage: pastries, cakes and ice cream are made even tastier with the precious fruit of Etna, which has also served to invent new delicacies over the years.

In addition to the fabulous ice cream and the hailed pistachio cake (made with sponge cake, sometimes filled with a layer of chocolate or Nutella that particularly matches the taste of the fruit), and the tasty pistachio pastes made using the same procedure as for almond paste, are becoming increasingly popular, the pistachio pesto based only on pistachio and seed oil and the phyllo pistachio, or the traditional Brontese sweet garnished with the precious fruit.

The sweetness of pistachios and the saltiness of more traditional main courses manage to combine in the sausage pistachios. Initially prepared by butchers with some perplexity, it is now in great demand. After all, the best mortadella is seasoned with pistachio, which if it is from Bronte is synonymous with great quality. Imagine then a kind of green-coloured Nutella that here they call Pistacchiella or more simply pistachio cream. Wander around the festival stands or go to any patisserie or restaurant in Bronte and you will find all this in a varied cocktail of products that only have one colour: the green of Bronte gold.

Cultivation
Sicily is the only Italian region where the pistachio e BronteWith over three thousand hectares under cultivation, it represents the main area of cultivation (more than 80% of the regional area and 1% of the world area) with a production with unique characteristics that make it a niche product of great value. Pistachio was already known to the Greeks and Romans, but it only became part of agricultural cultivation in Sicily thanks to the Arabs who discovered that the plant on which to graft it grew wild in the Bronte area.

The cultivation environment ranges from 300 to 900 metres above sea level, with the plant adapting to difficult environments such as the Brontese lava terrain, where nothing else grows but broom, which, however, unlike the pistachio, does not produce income. Harvesting is still carried out using the techniques of yesteryear amidst Etna's rugged, spiky lava, and from the fruit on the plant, first the husk must be removed, then the shell and, finally, the husk that protects the green pistachio. Immediately after harvesting, the pistachio is dried to reduce the moisture content to 4% (preventing the formation of microorganisms) and the so-called tignosellapistachios not yet shelled.