Timo

While every cook is familiar with many kinds of thyme, they are sometimes perplexed by winter and summer savory, which are both referred to in southern Italy as timo, and in the Salentine dialect as tumu, and in the ‘Greek’ villages as trumba.

Winter or mountain savory is white-flowered and has small thyme-like leaves, more grey than green; a woody shrub that grows in clumps on the verges of the macchia on calcareous soil and serves all the uses of wild thyme. This is the sajolida of the Catalans, equally widespread in the foothills which are covered with the same aromatic plants as in the south Italian macchia. Winter savory is used in grilling meat and fish, in braises, and in conserving olives; dried in autumn, when it flowers, it provides an excellent infusion or tisane.