The thousand and one facets of the pistachio: from benefits to gourmet pleasure

Near the Pont de l'Alma in Paris, a pigeon is pacing in front of the open door of La Pistacherie. Will he or won't he dare sneak in between the customers' feet to pick up the crumbs? The store is full, no one is looking at him. All eyes are on the shop windows. Behind them, alongside almonds and other berries, pistachios display their rich palette: pale pink, fuchsia, violet, aniseed yellow and a variation of greens, including Kermit the frog. Lebanese Charles Sakr is responsible for this boutique, which opened in 2010. Previously, for thirty years, he was an antique dealer specializing in 17th and 18th century objects and furniture, as well as a collector of pharmacy items. " I wanted to create an old-fashioned pharmacy concept offering products that were good for health and good for the palate. In my country, Lebanon, nuts and berries are eaten almost systematically as an aperitif. The pistachio, so good to eat, was still largely unknown in Europe and especially in France. "In fact, La Pistacherie opens up the rather closed world of pistachios. Frowning, we look at the labels on the bins: Bronte Sicily pistachio, €150/kg; Antep Turkey first-harvest pistachio, €128/kg; Grade "A" Iran raw trimmed pistachio, €128/kg; pistachio curry €68/kg! Pistachios here are like jewels, with their color and extravagant prices. Its taste, too. Nothing to do with supermarket pistachios, compulsively nibbled as an aperitif! I like to compare pistachios to wine," confides Sandra Murillo from the boutique. Each fruit has a different taste linked to its terroir. The taste bursts on the palate, vegetal, lingers for a long time, then fades. "

A long history

But where does this nut come from? From Central Asia and the plateaus of Afghanistan, the wild pistachio gradually spread to present-day Iran, Syria, Iraq, part of Turkey and then Lebanon. It is thought to have arrived in Italy around the 1st century AD with Lucius Vitellius, consul in Syria, and to have continued along the trade routes to Greece and Spain. It is also found in the Old Testament. The Queen of Sheba is said to have been mad about it. As for the great Mughal emperor Akbar, he is said to have tasted nothing but chickens fed on pistachio for several weeks! In short, pistachios have a long history. It grows on the pistachio tree, which thrives in sandy, silty-clay, clay and limestone soils, and ideally at altitude (between 600 and 1,200 meters, or even 2,000 meters). The tree, generally no taller than 6 meters, loves the heat, but it does read 600 and 1200 meters, or even 2000 meters). The tree, which generally doesn't exceed 6 meters, likes the heat, but also needs the cold. Hence its historical prevalence in the Mediterranean region. There are, of course, a few exceptions, such as the Pistacia vera L. in the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. Its sowing dates back to 1704," explains Sophie Kling, scientific manager of the botanical gardens at the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle. The botanist Tournefort had brought back seeds from his expedition to the Levant. For him, pollen was the plant's excrement. One of his disciples, Sébastien Vaillant, had another intuition, which he put into practice. He took a flowering branch from the tree and shook it over another pistachio tree that had since disappeared. Miraculously, some time later, the tree produced fruit. In 1717, Vaillant presented his theory of plant sexuality at a conference that caused quite a stir. He compared plant reproductive organs to those of animals. It came as a great shock at the time. "Sébastien Vaillant emphasized the dioecious nature of the tree, but it was Linnaeus who was to reap the rewards a few years later.

American domination

Today, pistachios seem to be the new green gold. According to Mordor Intelligence, the market is expected to reach $4.70 billion in 2024, and to grow to $5.85 billion by 2029. It's easy to see why appetites are whetting for pistachios! According to the US Department of Agriculture, the United States is the world's leading producer, with 677,000 tonnes (63%), far ahead of Iran (14%), which has lost ground to them in the space of a few decades, and Turkey (15%), followed by Syria (5%) and Europe (3%). Note that it is strangely difficult to gather exact figures. So let's go back to the origins of this fruit and let it speak for itself.

" Open your mouth, smiling pistachio, pour out tender words / I beg you, give me the sweetness of your smile ", wrote the famous Persian poet Hafez (1325-1390), who had no equal when it came to singing about love. The Iranian pistachio remains one of the most sought-after references, as it is considered one of the best. It grows in the Kerman valley, which gave its name to the variety found the world over (except in Iran!), created from a hybridization with an Iranian pistachio. Owhadi, Ogah, Kalehghouchi... Iranian varieties are so numerous that it would take a book to list them all. One peculiarity: they are harvested a little before ripening to obtain the most beautiful green. Pistachios range from the darkest green (S), to the very dark (A) to yellow (H). The greener it is, the more expensive it is. Harvested by hand, this Iranian seed has long flooded international and American markets. With the Islamic Revolution of 1979, everything changed.

The United States imposed an embargo on Iran not only for oil, but also for pistachios, which Americans loved. Some of them sensed the lode and planted Kerman pistachio trees on Uncle Sam's soil. They can thank botanist William Whitehouse, who in the 1930s secretly harvested seeds in Iran and brought them back to the United States! Today, the American market is doing extremely well, to the point of flooding our sidewalks with advertising. American Pistachio Growers (APG) has just launched a huge advertising campaign - " Surprising! Pistachios are rich in antioxidants " - to encourage consumption. Apparently, the French don't eat enough of them - around 10,000 tonnes a year, compared with... 470,000 tonnes in the USA. Despite this extensive communication, no one from APG deigned to answer our questions. California produces 99% of American pistachios. Cultivation here is often highly intensive. However, there's a catch: farmers are reportedly legally obliged to spray their soil, wasting thousands of liters of water a day in an area where water is in desperately short supply, to prevent the creation of dust. Residents of neighboring towns reportedly developed allergies. This pistachio is quite a sight to behold...

Green gold from Sicily

Thousands of miles away, in Sicily, the Bronte pistachio, like the Iranian pistachio, remains a rare commodity, much sought-after by gourmets, chefs (see recipe p. 42) and pastry chefs. At around 3,000 tonnes, it represents less than 1% of world production. Pistachio trees grow on the steep, volcanic rock of Mount Etna. You have to be a goat to harvest the fruit, by hand, using a gaule and a large tarpaulin. Bronte is the only place in the world where the harvest takes place every other year, in odd-numbered years (next harvest in 2025) from August to October. "It' s a way of preserving the nutrients in the soil and avoiding stressing the tree," says Miki Lembo at producer A Ricchigia. Which drives up prices. Bronte is green gold. So much so that in 2019, a brigade of police officers had to supervise the harvest! " The salt and minerals in the lava give it a special taste," continues Miki Lembo. Bronte pistachios now have a DOP, the equivalent of our PDO. They are the only ones, along with those from Aegina in Greece, to have this label.

New plantations

In other countries, such as Tunisia, pistachios are emerging from the ground. " With climate change, we're moving towards a transition. The country has far fewer hours of cold than before. But many crops need it, such as fishing. Farmers are increasingly switching to crops that require less water and cold, such as pistachios. The same thing is happening in France," says Fadhel Zribi, agronomist and director of Food Quality in Tunisia. " Large nurseries have started producing in vitro plants in Tunisia. This means that there is demand. They don't yet have international certificates, but that's likely to happen soon. "A sign that the pistachio is on a roll. In fact, France has relaunched its production in Provence. Which is good news, because the seed is said to have many properties, thanks to its content of vegetable protein, minerals and trace elements (potassium, copper, magnesium, calcium) and vitamins (E, B1, B6). It is said to reduce cholesterol and help the body function properly, including the heart and digestion. The perfect way to ease your conscience when enjoying ice cream, pastries or meat with pistachio pesto. After that, needless to say, we're all green.