Blood Oranges Add a Ruby Hue to Dishes and Desserts

THE last bottle of holiday wine has been drunk, the discarded Christmas trees have been pulped to mulch and my local farmers’ market has shrunk to a few crates of muddy roots and yellowing kale. It’s time to celebrate something new: the arrival of blood oranges.

Citrus season is in full swing, with tangerines, pomelos and Meyer lemons at their most fragrant and alluring. But none have the festive flair of the crimson-fleshed blood orange. And with more growers planting the somewhat finicky fruit, they are fast becoming nearly as easy to find as clementines — at least from now until April.

Blood oranges were the result of a spontaneous mutation of the sweet orange. The color develops when the fruit is grown in climates with cold nights and warm, sun-filled afternoons.

In Italy, blood oranges are the most popular kind of table oranges. Order a glass of orange juice in Rome and chances are you’ll be served something ruby-hued. The best blood oranges there are rooted in the rich volcanic soil near Mount Etna in Sicily, though they can also grow in other parts of the Mediterranean. In the United States, most are grown in California’s Central Valley, though Arizona and Texas cultivate the fruit as well. And you occasionally see blood oranges imported from Sicily; they tend to be juicer than their American cousins.

There are three main varieties: Italians swear by the variegated blond and scarlet Tarocco, which has a sweet, berrylike flavor and soft, easy-to-peel skin. Taroccos’ red pigment deepens as they reach maturity, which in Italy happens around Valentine’s Day.