The Fico Bianco del Cilento DOP is a sun-dried white fig from the cultivar Dottato. They are grown using the goblet growing method, traditional to the area. Unpeeled figs are picked when the fruits are overripe, whilst the figs destined for drying without the skin intact can be collected when they are not ripe. The drying process must take place in direct sunlight and/or using adjuvant such as protecting the fruits exposed to the sun with a plastic tunnel and/or soaking them in a hot water solution containing 2% salt.
The product can be sold even after being cooked, in hot-air ovens, which darken their skin. The Fico Bianco del Cilento PDO is shaped like a long pear and is very light in colour, leaning towards white when peeled, pale yellow unpeeled and chestnut when cooked. The pulp is typically amber-yellow, and has a doughy consistency and a very sweet taste. The production area of Fico Bianco del Cilento PDO is located in 68 areas, from the coastal hills of Agropoli until Bussento. Much of the area in which it is grown falls within the national park of Cilento and the Diano Valley, in the district of Salerno, in the region of Campania. Figs seem to have been introduced into the region before 500 B.C. by ancient Greeks who came to establish many cities there. Catone, and then Varrone, reported that dried figs were commonly used in Cilento and in Lucania as a basic food of the manual fieldworkers. It is documented in the Quaterno doganale delle marine del Cilento (1486), that dry fig production and trade was flourishing in the mid-1400s, where they were they began to be highly sought after at Italian markets. The Fico Bianco del Cilento DOP, produced with the Dottato variety of fig and only grown in Cilento National Park, owes its particular qualities to the phases of tilling that is carried out throughout the area. Many small farms that respect the traditional practices and customs perform the tilling.
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Mappatura dei Prodotti Tipici e Tradizionali 2005 - Regione Campania, Settore Se.SIRCA