Food and nutrition
Pistachio is a very nutritious and energetic nut. It is the richest in potassium and has a high fiber content.
It is recommended for people who make great physical and intellectual efforts.
The fruit
The pistachio is a small, elongated dried fruit with a hard, thin, light brown shell. The edible part is yellowish-green and tender.
They are used in edible products and even cosmetics, so there is a lot of demand.
The pistachio is a high-class fruit and is highly appreciated both for fresh consumption and for industry.
Increasingly, pistachios are consumed roasted and salted in their shell as an aperitif. The raw seed is used as an ingredient in many dishes, in confectionery and charcuterie, ice cream is made and a very sweet pistachio oil is obtained. They even have application as an ingredient in some medications with digestive action and cosmetics.
It is a very nutritious nut with a high fat content, between 30.5 and 51.6g per 100g of edible fresh weight.
It is obtained from the tree called alfoncigo, whose edible part is the seed or almond, covered by a hard, thin, light brown shell called pericarp. The almond is elongated, slightly triangular, about 2-3cm long, tender, oily and pale green or yellow in color.
Shelled pistachios can be kept frozen for months, although they may lose aroma and if they are peeled, it is recommended to refrigerate them, although the storage time is shorter in this case.
There are some varieties or types of pistachio that differ in the size and color of the almond, having greater or lesser acceptance.
The pistachio tree does not produce until after the fifth year and does not reach a good yield until the tenth. For this reason, in Spain the fruit is generally imported and market prices are high. On the Mediterranean coast, they ripen in September but in the market we can find them all year round.
Plant
The alfoncigo is the tree that produces pistachios. It is deciduous and its leaves change color in autumn, acquiring an orange-red hue that gives it great ornamental interest.
The pistachio comes from a medium-sized tree, about 6 to 10m high, known as alfoncigo of the Anacardiaceae family and Pistacia vera species. Its bark is rough, gray in color, with many branches and a dense crown. The roots go quite deep.
The leaves are compound, odd-pinnate, with 3 or 5 leaflets depending on the variety, oval or lanceolate, dark green on the upper side and lighter on the underside. The foliage changes color in autumn, turning orange-red, making it of great ornamental interest. The leaves are deciduous.
Male and female flowers are found on different trees. They are small, grouped in axillary inflorescences in the shape of clusters and greenish in color. They open in April-May and produce fruit with a single seed, which is the edible part.