I Fichi D'india [Italian Edition]

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One interesting tradition is winery owners giving the fruit to their grape-pickers for breakfast to prevent them from eating grapes during the harvesting. The fruits of the Prickly Pear in Italy are known as Fichi d'India (India Pears), marketed in America with the friendlier, less dangerous name of Cactus Pears.

My ex’s parents have huge old cacti, but the fichi weren’t ready to be picked yet when I was visiting last summer. It grows throughout the island, in every place from roadside verges to coastal strips and in the most isolated areas. I first learned to love “ufigghi d’india” as a child when accompanying my Sicilian mother and grandmother in cactus fields here in central California… We had no trouble with the fuzz “stinging” us being that before harvesting the fruit we’d pass burning newspaper over the fichi which would eliminate any problems and wouldn’t harm the frond (leaf)… If growing cactus for its fruit do not water the plant during the summer being it’ll think it’s winter and won’t produce any fichi.You pick it up with your hands and take a nice big bite without removing (or complaining about) the seeds. So, if you’re ready to keep trying where many have given up hope, keep reading, and I will tell you how to eat the delicious fico d’india without hurting yourself or wasting fruit. Unlike Mexico and other countries, Italy doesn't use the cactus paddles, but simply loves this pear shaped fruit. While there’ll always be catalysts that incite bitterness, Paul knows of its capacity to disease a people.

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. Farmers claim it works better than Compeed, provided of course they do not puncture their thumbs on the long prickly spikes. Your natural instinct will be to chomp down on the seeds and chew them, but you have to resist this.The flat, irregular, leaves of the fica d’india are oval-shaped, a little bit bigger than a table tennis racquet. Which is if you put up with the more challenging parts of life, there is often a sweet fruit at the end of it all. Once the fruit is peeled it’s red, fleshy, skin (there are also white and orange colored fruit) is slightly sweet and very refreshing (including tiny digestible seeds).

Somewhere in the northeast quarter of Sicily, as we rounded a bend by a grand but incidental rail bridge, we spotted a roadside fruit and vegetable stall. The process of moving the famous potted citrus trees into the orangery for winter was just about to begin. Il Manfredoniano has an excellent video on how the local sellers clean cactus fruit in literally seconds.Having paid the kindly, weathered, slightly feisty vendor, I walked back to the car, inexplicably wiping my mouth as I went.

I heard the Sicilian vendor repeat a word that sounded a lot like ‘figidinja’ as I eavesdropped for any words that might give me a hint of its flavour. I’ve traveled to Calabria on many occasions (both as a child and adult) and the landscape continually amazes me. S. for university and later began her family there, but has never drifted far from her Sicilian roots. d) A contraption of engineering genius to reach the ones higher up, further away, and of extreme prickly dimensions. Plus it has a light, almost dessert-like flavor that is what makes it worth it to go through all this trouble!Moreover you have the trouble of liberating the fruit from the thorny skin, which is a bit of a turn off. 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. On this site bloggers can post information about any herb, plant, fruit, vegetable or flower – I submitted my information about prickly pears to the host for the week: The Cabinet of Prof Kitty . Variations: – add oregano or lemon juice, use it on your Insalata Caprese or to spice up a bean salad. The love of this versatile fruit has seen the fico d’india turned into ice cream, sorbet and even liquor.