Oignon Rosé de Roscoff — pink onions from the coastal town of Roscoff in northern Finistère, Brittany. These hold AOP (Appellation d'Origine Protégée) status, granted in 2009, which restricts production to a defined area around Roscoff where the mild, maritime climate and the region's silty, mineral-rich soil produce onions with characteristics that cannot be replicated elsewhere.

The pink colour is in the outer skin and the first few layers of flesh — a pale copper-rose that fades to white toward the centre. The flavour is noticeably sweeter and milder than a standard brown onion, with less of the sharp, eye-watering pyruvic acid bite that makes raw onion overpowering. This lower pungency is partly varietal and partly a product of the growing conditions: the Atlantic climate around Roscoff keeps temperatures moderate and consistent, which slows the accumulation of the sulphur compounds responsible for harshness. The result is an onion that can be used raw — finely sliced in salads, on oysters, in a mignonette — without dominating everything around it.

Roscoff onions have a particular cultural history in Britain. The Johnnies — Breton onion sellers who crossed the Channel by boat and sold plaited strings of Roscoff onions door-to-door from their bicycles — were a familiar sight in southern England and Wales from the mid-19th century onward. The tradition peaked in the 1920s and 1930s when hundreds of Johnnies made the crossing each year. It is largely where the French stereotype of the beret-wearing, onion-string-carrying cyclist originates.

Store in a cool, dry, dark place with good airflow. Roscoff onions keep well but not as long as harder-skinned brown varieties — use within a few weeks.

Origin: Roscoff, Brittany, France

Ingredients: Pink onions (Allium cepa).

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