The other evening I was trying to get to the bottom of a linguistic problem concerning.... onion-like vegetables.
What's the difference between a scallion, a shallot, a leek, and a chive? For sure the Web is quite unclear about explanation and translation, often misleading the poor "scholar" into believing that leek might be a synonym for scallion or that you might translate it as porro or scalogno as you deem best.
So let's get to know our vegetables
"leek" is "porro" (Allium ampeloprasum porrum)
"shallot" is "scalogno" (Allium cepa aggregatum)
"chive" is "erba cipollina" (Allium schoenoprasum)
"scallion" is generic and can stand for any kind of onion shoot before the bulb is formed. So scallion does not have a Latin name.
Out of vocabulary, In practical life, my advice is to use leek instead of onion if you are preparing some kind of risotto (with porcini for example, not to cover the delicate taste of the mushrooms) or sauce with fish (a salmon pasta for example). If you are French, you probably want to go with shallots.
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