Cipolle di Tropea (The Sweet Red Onions of Tropea)
Calabria is famous for its sweet red onions named after the glamorous beach town of Tropea. During the month of May and June you can buy them freshly harvested at roadside farm stands.
Later, in June and July, they are sold at markets strung in a ristra.
The main growing area is south of Tropea, around Ricardi and Capo Vaticano. You will find these onions grown all over Calabria but the ones grown close to the sea are extremely sweet because of the sandy soil and the mild climate throughout the year. They come in two shapes, torpedo and flat round. I grow both types in my garden. If you want to grow them you can order the seeds online from Seeds from Italy or Garden Edibles and start them in early fall. You will then need to transplant them in October, and by June they’ll be ready to eat. Here is what they look like in my garden right now:
In Calabria these red onions are eaten raw in salads; cooked in sauces; roasted or grilled; placed on top of pizza or in frittate; made into jam, and even added to ice cream!
Last year when I was in Calabria in May, right when they were being sold as young fresh red onions, I enjoyed them roasted under salt at Casa Janca in Pizzo. I never had them prepared this way and it was the most wonderful side dish of the evening. Signora Rita Callipo roasted them under a crust of salt and then served them with only a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. I could have made an entire meal out of them. They were so good that when I got back home I pulled some young red onions from my garden and prepared them the same way. I just made them again last night and decided to share this simple recipe with you.
If you have never cooked under salt don’t be afraid of the quantity required. The salt seals the food and keeps it moist, yet it doesn’t get into the food. I roast whole fish under salt and it is truly the best way to prepare it. You can get my recipe for seabass under a crust of salt in my cookbook due out this fall.
Red onions just pulled from my garden:
Clean the fresh red onions by removing their roots and stems.
Mix 1.5 lbs of Diamond Crystal Kosher salt (a half box) with enough water (about 1 cup) to make it the consistency of sand. Use only Diamond Crystal kosher salt; other brands are made by a different process, so the crystals have a different shape and are less absorbent.
Place a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet, which will make cleaning easier, and make a bed of salt.
Lay the onions on top and cover them with the wet salt. Pat the salt down and make sure that no part of the onion is exposed.
Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Crack the salt crust.
Remove the onions and clean any salt that sticks to them. I also remove the outer layer of the onion.
Cut the onions in half and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil. Sprinkle with a little sea salt if needed.
Give it a try. They are so good!
About Rosetta:
19 Responses to “Cipolle di Tropea (The Sweet Red Onions of Tropea)”
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Rosetta Costantino teaches classes on the cooking of her native Calabria, Italy, and other Southern Italian regions. She has authored My Calabria (nominated for an IACP award) and Southern Italian Desserts (to be published Oct. 2013). more
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Wow, so very interesting. I’ve cooked fish this way, but never onions! I’m going to try it.
Will definitely try! I just bought four kilos of onions (for five euros!) so I’m looking for some new things to try with them
I can’t wait to make these onions Rosetta; they sound fabulous like the rest of the other recipes! What a wonderful blog you have! Buenas noches, Liliana
Do you know where I can get the tropea onions in the U.S? Any suggestions would be appreciated!
Diana,
I am not aware of any place where you can buy Tropea onions in the US. Maybe one of the readers does and might be able to tell us. I grow my own with seeds that came from Calabria. If you like to grow your own onions, the seeds are available here in the US. I listed two sites in the post where you can order the seeds online.
I grow and sell both the Torpedo shaped and the round Tropea onions, available july-October at Berkeley Saturday Farmer’s Market.My farm is called La Tercera
PS, after checking the ” About Rosetta” tab I realised I just bought your book. it’s wonderful, Annabelle
Annabelle,
Thanks for letting me know that you sell the Torpedo and the sweet red onions of Tropea at the Berkeley Farmer’s Market. I will let my students know about it.
Hi Rosetta,
These pictures are beautiful. I can’t wait to experiment with using red onions as a primary ingredient.
Moreover, I purchased your book recently and found it inspirational. I think when it’s time to buy a home with my wife, I may just have to start a garden. I love the simplicity, spices, and poor/rural roots of Calabrian cooking – not to mention I am a “pescatarian”. I learned my grandmother cooked with anchovy and hot peppers, and I don’t know if it’s cell memory or something
but I do the same thing…I have even come to prefer toasted breadcrumbs to parmigiana on many dishes.
My family emigrated from Calabria (Lungro and Santa Sofia) in the 1880′s. My wife ‘s family is ironically from the nearby village of Tarsia, and share the surname with the village only spelled “Tarzia”.
However, I was curious…is Italo-Albanese culture much different from “regular” Calabrese society? I was born and raised in NYC/western Long Island of mixed Italian-American descent, so I am looking to learn more? I’m curious how “separatist” these Arbereshe people are from “Italians”? It’s an odd distinction because the Arbereshe (I never heard the term up until recently) seem to have been in Calabria for centuries. Calabria seems to be made up of so many different ancestral lines that I am having trouble seeing the people of Calabria as a homogeneous ethnic group, while the Arbereshe—who were there for nearly 5 centuries— managed to keep themselves “different”. It’s really odd !!! I’m trying to understand…if you have the time of course?
Thank you for a wonderful-wonderful book! What a contribution, and family you have. Thank you for sharing.
Paul
* Parmigiano-Reggiano not parmigiana (spell check is killing me today).
Paul,
The Arbereshe communities in Calabria have maintained their customs, traditions, religion, language since the 15th century. For the longest time they didn’t even marry with people from non-Arbereshe towns (that is no longer the case). I have gone inside the church at Lungro (which happens to be the center of the Arbereshe Orthodox church) and you would never know that you were in Calabria. I couldn’t understand a word. I used to hear about the Arbereshe towns from my parents (Lungro happens to be in the back of the mountains behind my town) but I had never visited one until I started doing the research for the book. I was interested in discovering recipes that were not known outside of the Arbereshe towns and what I found is that most of all of their dishes are similar to what is found throughout Calabria but with a different name. If you get a chance, you should go to Lungro and many of the other Arbereshe towns (there are 32 Arbereshe towns in Calabria). There is a museum in Civita (another Arbereshe town, one of my favorite) that has traditional costumes on display.
Rosetta
Paul,
I knew what you meant. In fact the toasted breadcrumbs are called “poor’s man cheese”.
Rosetta
Rosetta,
Thank you for taking the time to respond to my sort of lengthy question. Your response clarified for me why some of my relatives (not all) identified as having “Albanian” ancestry, even with Italian surnames, and what ostensibly appeared to be Italian culture and cuisine. It actually caused a great deal of confusion in my family for some time. After 4 generations of New Yorkers intermarrying on the lower east side, it’s hard to know what to believe.
If I ever make a trip to Europe, which I hopefully will one day, I plan to visit Calabria first. Your region appeals to the “poor man” in me, and my wife’s roots are in Tarsia too which is an added bonus
By the way, I made your Vellutata di Ceci con Gamberi last night for my wife, and I have been making your Zuppetta di porcini e patate (unfortunately with Portobello mushrooms) all winter – outrageous! Needless to say, there is nothing pretentious about Calabrian cooking, but there is something very elegant about it. The ingredients are for the most part simple, but I have noticed that in order to get these dishes right, I have to pay close attention to the cooking methods.
As you can see, I am enjoying myself
Thank you again Rosetta,
Paul
Paul,
Glad to hear that you are enjoying yourself in the kitchen with my recipes. I agree with you, you do need to pay attention to the cooking methods. Read the recipe more than once and if you follow it you should have success with my recipes as they have been tested over the years.
I will be spending a week in Tropea in November and although the Tropea onion will not be in season I hope to find it still. I will be staying in a little apartment in the convent and have a small kitchen, but even if I am a cook and a food writer I may end up sampling the local dishes in the surrounding city centre. I hope to discover many local Calabrian dishes. It is unfortunate..for me..that I will not be there at the time of your tour.
Can I buy the sweetest onions in NYC?
Can you use the Green tops ?
Yes you can use the green tops when fresh and tender