Lenticchia di Villalba
Villalba Lentil
The country northwest of Caltanissetta, Villalba above all, grows lentils and tomatoes in rotation with durum wheat. The first written notice of the lentils is in Giovanni Mulè Bertòlo's Memorie del Comune di Villalba of 1900, though they are far older than that. The local ecotype is large-seeded, as in temperate countries, up to nearly a centimetre across, high in iron and protein and low in phosphorus and potassium.
Designation
- Certification
- Slow Food Presidium
- Category
- Fruit, vegetables and cereals, fresh or processed
Where it is made
Villalba comune and part of the comuni of Mussomeli, Marianopoli, Vallelunga and Cammarata, Caltanissetta province
How it is made
Cut by hand, tied into small bundles and dried in the open five to eight days before the seed is separated mechanically; harvest is mid-June. Villalba was growing about 30 percent of all Italian lentils between the 1930s and the 1960s. Labour costs, modest yields and cheap imports then took most of the growers out, and the market moved to small seed that cooks faster.