Amarena cherries are a small, dark sour cherry variety from Italy's Emilia-Romagna region, traditionally preserved whole in a thick sugar syrup rather than eaten fresh.
The best-known version, Amarena Fabbri, dates to 1905, when Gennaro Fabbri's wife Rachele began slow-candying local cherries in copper pots; the recipe and its signature blue-and-white ceramic jar are still produced by the family company today. Amarena cherries top gelato, tiramisu, and cakes, are stirred into cocktails, and occasionally flavor savory sauces for meat, where their sweet-tart flavor and hint of bitter almond balance rich ingredients like mascarpone, dark chocolate, and balsamic vinegar. They shouldn't be confused with maraschino cherries: amarena are only lightly sweetened and keep a firmer bite, unlike the syrupy, dyed maraschino style.