Blood Oranges

Living at a latitude inhospitable to the cultivation of citrus fruit means I’ve only been exposed to a limited proportion of what the genus has to offer. Of the citrusses I have tried, my favourite sub-variety must be the blood orange.

Although I can recall first getting a taste for them in my teens, it was during my ’90s sojourn in Italy that my preference became fully-formed. Sicilian sanguinello fruit were abundant from the end of January into early or mid March, with many cafes setting up juice dispensers on their counters full of their sharp red-orange juice for the duration.

Nowadays, as with so much other produce, the window of availabilty has been extended, and as well as enlivening the drab month of February, so-called “sweet reds” can now be found until late April: I bought some this morning.