Torpedo onion
Allium cepa · Allium
Top 10 pairings
The Torpedo onion is the long, tapering red of Calabria — an elongated, spindle-shaped bulb in glossy red-purple paper, famous as the Cipolla Rossa di Tropea. Bred along a thin strip of Tyrrhenian coast and protected as a European geographical indication, it is sweet and mild enough to slice raw into salads, yet its sugar is what makes it shine roasted, grilled and stewed into agrodolce. Few onions are so prized as a regional speciality.
Picking a good onedrag
Just curedSprouted and soft
Firm and paperyBuy itAnything: raw in a salad, or cooked down.
SkinPapery and dry, flakes lifting
NeckDry and papery, no give
WeightFirm all over, good heft
SmellFaint dry onion, nothing sharp
These cues are Onion's, and hold across its varieties; where this one differs, its own page says so.
What you get from one
90%
Edible part
110 g · skin and ends off
122 g
Weight each
each one
Keeping ittap a temperature
A domestic fridge holds it about 5× longer than the counter.
65–75%
Humidity
Open and moving
Airflow