Anguria, Cocomero

This refreshing summer fruit has almost no nutritional value, with ninety-five per cent of the flesh being water and most of the rest sugar. A few successful varieties have been introduced to Italy from the Nile Valley in Egypt, from where they originate. They come in a variety of shapes, oval, oblong and round, and a range of colours from dark to pale green. The fruit is usually eaten as a refreshing dessert or as a snack on the hottest of days, turned into ice-cream or sorbet, or simply liquidized and served with ice as a drink.