Amarena Cherries in Syrup

Toschi Vignola has been making Amarena cherries in Vignola — the small Emilian town that gives the cherry its name — since 1945, and their version remains one of the benchmarks of the category. Amarena cherries are a specific variety of sour black cherry grown in the Bologna and Modena area, prized for their intense, bittersweet flavour and the deep, dark syrup they produce when preserved in sugar. They are one of Italy's great pantry ingredients.

Spoon them over vanilla gelato or panna cotta, fold them into a semifreddo, use them to finish a Negroni or a Manhattan, layer them into a trifle, or simply eat them straight from the jar with a spoon. The syrup is as useful as the cherries themselves — stir it into sparkling water, drizzle it over yoghurt, or use it to sweeten a cocktail. At 240g, one jar goes a long way.