Warning ladies and gentleman: it IS a huge prickly succulent but if you look closer you may find something oh so delicious within it’s spiky womb.

But it's not the obvious large spines of this cactus that are the problem, the real danger is from the tiny, nearly invisible hair-like spines that completely cover the skin of the fruit that you have to watch out for. The complexities are made even more difficult by the plant’s habit of finding a home in odd places like between boulders, on high walls, around electrical poles, on the edges of superhighways and through fences. Now that we know the origin story of the fico d’india, we get to the real question: how the heck does anyone even eat these things? If anyone is growing one please make sure it does not get out of control and do not let it start growing near our rivers and native areas. As I mentioned above I prefer my fichidindia chilled, but my favorite way to eat a true fig is straight from the tree, still warm from the sun.

As for their taste, tiny hard pips dominate the first bite, but the soft flesh around them is quite refreshing and sweet like a melon.

I wear rubber gloves when doing this because sometimes there are hair-like almost invisible thorns left on the surface of the pear that can get into the skin on your fingers and drive you crazy with itching. First, I have been told explicitly that, even in the polite, fancy company of a dinner party, you don’t eat this fruit with a fork. Christopher Columbus, still under the impression that he had found India when he landed in North America, “discovered” the fruit and named it “Indian fig. Rememb er Prickly Pear is a noxious weed in australia and some of these plants are now controlled by the environmental depos by killing it with the cochineal bug lavae which is a good thing. They may be getting on in their age (no offence, guys), but present them with an opportunity to obtain free red fichi d’India from an otherwise untouched source and they are more than willing to clamber over the walking trail’s railings, cross over the channel and jostle their way through other vegetation to reach this prickly bush.

Now, thanks to your blog, the other 5 remaining will not go to waste, I will try to make the vinegarette and use it on salads! Attempts to bring down the rating of a competitor by submitting a negative review will not be tolerated. I’ve always eaten them for breakfast in Sicily and once on a trip to the mountains with a taxi-driver we included them in our lunch. Rosetta's profound love for and attachment to the traditional ways of her native Sicily, along with its cuisine, literature, history and visual and performing arts, represent an important part of her life.

Chickpeas, beans or lentils were alternated and cooked with hand made pasta, feeding the whole family.They were brought to Italy by the Spanish explorers in the New World and found a perfect new home in southern Italy which, at the time, was ruled by Spain.

Mary, I had some rather uninspiring prickly pears my first time out as well; if they were the yellow kind that you had, I *highly* recommend trying the red as well. Once ripe the Fichi are intensely sweet and full of copious amounts of tiny seeds which are all edible.My parents are from Sicily and they miss good, sweet ficchi d’India (and so do I)…please contact me at [redacted] if you have any you’d like to share/sell. Plus it has a light, almost dessert-like flavor that is what makes it worth it to go through all this trouble!