How to make the most of the short and sweet blood orange season

Often confused with clementines, the red-fleshed fruit is ripe and ready to eat from December to May. Lizzie Rivera visits Sicilly to meet the first family to grow the fruit organically

The Borghese family's 85-hectare organic citrus farm in Lentini is located next to Mount Etna and grows organic blood oranges (Gary Congress)

The new year brings with it new and exciting opportunities – including the peak of the relatively short Blood Orange season.

Also more elegantly known as Blush Oranges, they are at their sweetest in January and February, because it’s the drop in temperature during the cold nights that follow warm, Mediterranean winter days that turn the citrus fruits a deliciously deep red or vivid orange with red streaks.

Typically only available until March, these winter specialities are tangy and juicy, and packed with Vitamin C. They make a delicious sticky sauce for warming winter main courses and a beautifully vibrant substitute for citrus desserts.

Blood oranges can be bought in most good supermarkets or greengrocers, but organic ones are harder to find, try Abel & Cole for the original Sicilian organic blood oranges, grown next to Mount Etna by the Borghese family.

Giangiacomo Borghese. The Borghese were the first organic citrus suppliers in Sicily, and sell exclusively to Abel & Cole in the UK (Gary Congress)

How to spot a Blood Orange

Colour: orange, sometimes with reddish pink streaks
Skin: usually pitted and fairly thick-skinned, but sometimes smooth
Size: slightly smaller than a normal orange
Flesh: a deep red, or orange with red streaks

Orange trees blossom in the spring. The fruit starts growing from the flower buds through the summer and autumn – when they are deep green – before turning a deep red blush in winter (Gary Congress)

Roast chicken with blood oranges by Jassy Davis

Inspired by the fresh, crunchy fennel and blood orange salads they eat in Sicily in the New Year, this roast chicken is coated in a sticky, spicy blood orange sauce and roasted with fennel and blood oranges so you get a warm salad to serve alongside it.

Prep: 30 mins
Cook: 1 hr 45 mins plus resting
Diet: Gluten-Free

For the chicken

1.7kg whole, organic chicken
2 blood oranges
1 red chilli
2 garlic cloves 
1 tbsp fresh rosemary leaves 
50g honey
Sea salt
Freshly ground pepper

For the blood oranges and fennel

3 blood oranges
2 fennel bulbs
​100g pitted black olives
2 tbsp olive oil
​100g rocket

Put your chicken in a large roasting tin and let it come to room temperature. Heat your oven to 190°C/Fan 170°C/Gas 5.

Finely grate the zest from the oranges into a bowl. Squeeze in the juice. Halve the chilli, scoop out the seeds and white pith then mince it as finely as you can. Add to the bowl. Peel and grate or crush the garlic and add that too. Finely chop the rosemary leaves and stir them in with the honey and a pinch of sea salt and pepper.

Pour the blood orange sauce over the chicken, making sure you cover it. Loosely cover the chicken with foil, scrunching it to the sides of the tin to seal it. Slide into the oven and roast for 1 hr. While the chicken roasts, prepare the blood oranges and fennel. Quarter the blood oranges and pop them in a bowl. Halve the fennel bulbs. Slice each half into 4 wedges. Add to the bowl with the olives. Drizzle in the olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Turn to coat in the oil. Set aside.

Take the chicken out of the oven and remove the foil. Tuck the fennel, blood oranges and olives around the chicken. Return to the oven and roast the chicken and veg for 45 mins, till the veg are tender and sticky and the chicken is cooked all the way through. Transfer the chicken to a board and rest it for 30 mins, loosely covered with foil. Arrange the rocket on a platter and heap the fennel, orange and olives up on it. Drizzle any sticky juices from the chicken roasting tin over the top. Carve the chicken and serve with the salad.

Blood Orange & Saffron Curd by Sorrel Scott

A curd that infuses two of our favourite things – blood oranges and saffron – sign us up.

Prep:  1 hr
Cook: 2 hrs plus cooling 
Makes: approx. 600ml

Large pinch saffron threads
​250ml blood orange juice (approx. 3 oranges)
​250g caster sugar
​200g unsalted butter
8 egg yolks

To make the curd, place the saffron threads in a small bowl. Cover with 1 tbsp boiling water and leave to infuse. Place the remaining curd ingredients into a glass bowl. Add the saffron threads and soaking water. Mix together.

Put the bowl over a pan of simmering water (take care not to let the bottom of the bowl touch the water). Place on a gentle heat and cook till the butter has melted and the curd coats the back of a spoon. This can take 20-30 mins. Stir regularly. Pour the thickened curd into a couple of sterilised jars. Leave to cool then store in the fridge for up to 2 months.

Lizzie Rivera is the author of ethical lifestyle website bicbim.co.uk