frutto

Frutto, in Italian, means fruit. In botanical terms, a fruit is the mature ovary of a flowering plant, often with surrounding floral tissues, and typically contains seeds. It forms after fertilization and functions to protect seeds and aid their dispersal.

There is a distinction between the botanical definition of fruit and the everyday culinary use of the word. Botanically defined fruits include many items often treated as vegetables in cooking, such as tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers. Fruits are commonly classified by origin as simple, aggregate, multiple, or accessory.

Examples of fruit types include simple fruits from one ovary (peaches, cherries), aggregate fruits from multiple ovaries of one flower (raspberries), multiple fruits from many flowers (pineapple), and accessory fruits in which non-ovarian tissues form part of the edible fruit (strawberries, apples).

Structure and nutrition: A fruit typically has a pericarp with exocarp (skin), mesocarp (flesh), and endocarp (inner layer), enclosing seeds. Nutritionally, fruits are rich in water, natural sugars, dietary fiber, vitamins, and minerals, with composition varying by type.

Production and use: Fruits are grown worldwide and form a major agricultural sector. Postharvest handling, ripening, and storage influence flavor and shelf life, while culinary uses range from fresh consumption to processing into juice, jams, and dried products.