Spring onions from Italy are a different vegetable from the finger-sized spring onions known and used in Britain. There, the spring onions are white, red and purple, the size of golf balls. They are juicy and fresh with a delicate sweet flavour, and are known as cipolline verde.
When cooking with these luscious onions, choose to match them with other spring vegetables and herbs. Their size and crisp texture means that they retain their identity when cooked with other vegetables. Spring onions are best simply and quickly pan-fried or char-grilled, but as their arrival coincides with the new peas, we cook them together.
As the season gets warmer, these sweet onions develop dry, papery skins, and become suitable to store.