Pistachio

It is native from a vast area in Anatolia (Asia Minor), Syria and Turkmenistan. It was a popular fruit, cultivated by ancient Jews, and at that time it was already seen as a precious fruit. It is mentioned in the Old Testament and Genesis. It was already popular among Oriental populations: Babylonians, Assyrians, Jordanians, Greeks, where it was a plant with healing properties and used as antidote against venomous animals since the III century B.C. According to Pliny the Elder, Lucius Vitellius (Governor of Syria) introduced the Pistachio to Spain and Italy around 20-30 A.C. after the Roman conquests. The Romans still called the place, where the Pistachio was produced "frastuchera locus" . In Italy it is cultivated almost exclusively in Sicily, where it was introduced by the Arabs. The word in dialect fastuca, that indicates the fruit, derives from the Arab term fastuch. There is a great variety of Sicilian food containing the pistachio, such as sauces, ice-cream, pesto, liqueur, torrone, panettone.