The article explores the fascinating history and cultural significance of lemons. It highlights research by Margaret Visser, illustrating that even sight can affect physiological responses, exemplified through salivation experiments. Lemons, originating from northern India, were documented in early Arab texts and later cultivated across the Mediterranean. Their trade routes included journeys to China, blending with local citrus varieties. Additionally, the article emphasizes the joy lemons bring even before use, and concludes with a cherished recipe for sbriciolata, a lemon pudding tart taught to the author by a friend in Rome.
While northern India, with its warm, humid climate that almost never gets colder than 10C, is where lemons very likely originated, Visser also notes that the first clear mention of lemons is, as far as we know, an Arab document from the early 10th century, in which the laimun tree is said to be sensitive to cold.
Lemon cultivation in the Mediterranean was certainly the consequence of Arab initiative and the creation of orchards in north Africa, Spain and Sicily; it also seems likely that Arab traders sailed the lemons eastwards to China.
Lemons bring joy, even before you scratch or squeeze them. My attempts, however, were sabotaged by family members showing me lemons, which did confirm something we already knew.
This week's recipe: a great favourite taught to me by my friend Cinzia Fioravanti just after I moved to Rome in 2005, takes its name from the action sbriciolata.
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