Dottato Fig

Dottato is Italy's most widespread and, by reputation, most prized fig variety, known in the United States as Kadota and in Portugal as Moscatel Branco — quite possibly the same underlying variety complex circulating under several regional names, a real ambiguity flagged elsewhere in this database under the Kadota and Peter's Honey entries. In southern Italy's Calabria region specifically, the variety has earned Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) status from the European Union (recognized June 22, 2011) as Fico Dottato / Fichi di Cosenza, with documented cultivation reaching back to the era of Magna Graecia and the subsequent Arab-period agriculture of southern Italy, though the most consistent, well-documented commercial production dates specifically from the 16th century onward; an 1812 Kingdom of Naples government document, the Statistica Murattiana, records Cosenza-area figs already being exported at that time. The variety produces two crops: a large, sweet early-summer crop known locally as fioroni, and a smaller, more intensely flavored crop later in summer, both traditionally dried using methods refined over centuries in the region. The fruit has yellowish-green skin and amber to violet flesh, relatively few seeds, and is eaten fresh, canned, or dried; when allowed to over-ripen on the tree it develops a pronounced honey-like sweetness.