One spot them all around: in the gardens, next to the road, in the wild. The big cactus bushes are very green and very prickly! Do not collect its fruits without gloves or without pincer...Thats why the fruit "ficho d'India" means in Italian "the fig of India" and has the English name "prickely pear" (while the German translate it as "Kaktusfeige"):-)
Of course if you want to taste them without the adventurious part of collecting them yourself there are plenty of locals selling them. In some fruit shops one may even find them already pilled off. In a Palermo trattoria, where locals have quick lunch I had a plate of three "fichi d india" lovely cleaned and ready to eat as a dessert! The one that look greener actually tasted even sweeter than the other two!
Another common for Sicilian and exotic for the rest of Europeans (at least for the colder countries) fruit is the pomegranate. These fruits were already open in the sun and some thursty birds had enjoyed almost all fruits of the tree below!
6 comments:
So interesting! I actually bought a pomegranate, and it was a disaster! I have opted to just buy the seeds which are delicious and crunchy on a salad. Have never tasted prickly pear but would love to.
i have never tried a prickly pear fruit, despite it is also sold in market here. i somehow do not know how to prepare.
The pomegranate looks so delicious. We hope your holiday was a treat, wasn't it?
C+J
dear all,
thank you...
->about the "prickely pear": dont touch it with bare hands, just with gloves or with fork, peel it off well (there are tons of invisible mini spines)and eat the inside, however you need a ripe one!
->about pomegranate: I adore them, as a fresh-pressed juice or indeed just the seeds on top of indian dishes or as fruit snack!
@Barb: choose a hard one and it should be the reddest colour possible, I get really good ones from Israel...however I have some years of experience as my grand parents had a tree in the garden in Bulgaria:-)
Interesting! Serving 3 types of fruits as lunch. It's like eating the main course and dessert at the same time.
dear AVCr8teur: the plate of three prickely pears was my desert I had some yummy fish as main dish:)
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