fico / fig

Fresh figs from the farmers' market brought back sweet memories of fig picking. Different kinds of figs (fichi) ripen at different times during the summer, so when I was in Italy, summer was a season of continuous fig eating. I remember neighbors arriving at the house in my dad's village with baskets lined with fig leaves, full of sweet-smelling fruit: they never lasted long. My mother would spread peeled figs over slices of bread for a nutritious snack for me and my brother and I have been doing the same for my husband.

The summer bounty gets stashed away in the form of marmellata di fichi (fig jam) and above all fichi secchi (dried figs), which are then eaten as is, or used to make desserts like pan pepato, panciallo, the famous Sicilian buccellato and countless others.

In my home region of Umbria, the town of Amelia is famous for Fichi Girotti, dried figs stuffed with candied fruit (canditi), toasted almonds (mandorle), walnuts (noci) and cocoa (cacao). The figs are pressed into small round bricks (called rotelle), which are then broken apart to eat the heavenly morsels. The only problem with figs is that it is difficult to stop eating them once you start.

In Calabria (southern Italy), ripe figs are baked and then made into balls called palloni di fichi. Each pallone comprises 20-25 figs (there is a nice photo on this page). Dried figs are assembled in other ways as well, like crosses (crocette) and braids (trecce). In Sicily they are strung together using twine or reeds.

Two common expressions make use of figs and have correspondents in English:

• if something is not worth a fig, then non vale un fico secco
• if you don't give (or care) a fig about something, you say: non me ne importa un fico secco.

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Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post: 

fico

or launch the fico audio file [mp3].

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Comments

[Burcu]

I know exactly what you mean about summers of fig eating. This summer I was in Turkey, mid August, perfect time for figs. In my parents' garden we have one green and one black fig trees, oh that black one.. Just like you said, impossible to stop eating them.

[Paz]

I love the two expressions you've listed above. I have to memorize it and use it often. ;-)))))

Paz

[Simona Carini]

Hi Burcu: what a treat to have two fig trees in the garden. It sounds like you enjoyed their fruits.
Hi Paz, I am glad you like the expressions: they are indeed funny ones.

[Maryann]

Hi Simona,
I just found your site and I'm enjoying it so much.Today I was yearning for a fresh fig.It would have been like finding a jewel but it was not to be. Maybe this weekend I'll have more luck. I miss them dearly as they bring back memories of my grandfather's garden and his fig tree that he tended so carefully.

[Simona Carini]

Hi Maryann and welcome. I hope you'll find some good figs this weekend. Here figs are not as popular as in Italy.

[Susan]

Fresh AND dried figs are ambrosia. Growing up I would always know which homes were Italian; they always had the trees tied and tarped in their backyards to keep them warm from the nasty winters. I was always fascinated by them.

[Simona Carini]

Hi Susan. That is a very interesting story: thanks for sharing it.

[Dolores]

My father (first generation American born to Northern Italian parents) had another phrase... a term of "non-endearment" for indecisive people. He called them "fico molo" which he translated "soft fig"

[Simona Carini]

Hi Dolores and welcome. I have to admit I had never heard that expression: it sounds funny.

[Barbara]

I stumbled onto this site by accident, but am enjoying it very much. I had one funny little bit to add; I grew up in Newark, New Jersey in an Italian neighborhood and some of the ole timers grew fig trees in their backyards. When the cool weather would start to come in around September/October, these men would bundle up their fig trees with anything they could get their hands on; blankets, coats, even rolled lineoleum, to protect their precious fig trees from the approaching winter. I remember hearing one of my aunts say that our neighbor took better care of his fig tree than he did his wife.

[Simona Carini]

Ciao Barbara and thanks for the kind words and for sharing the interesting memory about fig trees. I am not surprised in the sense that fig trees are widespread in the Italian countryside. I grew up in central Italy and knew a lot of people who had fig trees on their land. And of different kinds too, so the fruit supply was spread during the summer. Besides eating them fresh, you can use figs in tarts, jam and other preserves. I wish I had a bunch of fig trees here! Thanks for visiting my blog.