Fico d’India (Indian Fig) or simply the prickly pear grows wild in Sicily. Strong, tough, and straggling mountainsides and roadsides this classic Sicilian plant, bears lots of fruit (it is also commercially produced), is ‘indigenous to the American Southwest and Mexico’ and was planted in Sicily by the Spanish ‘at a time when Europeans still believed that the Western Hemisphere was part of India.’ (Vincent Schiavelli).

The exotic sounding name (no relation to the fig) of this oval shaped fruit, dotted with very fine prickles, has stuck.

Peeling the slightly 'dangerous' prickly pear

Enjoyed from summer through to late autumn this fruit requires careful handling to avoid the tiny fine prickles piercing the hand of the peeler.

Some recollections: a fico d' india seller peeling 'figs' in the grounds of the Roman villa- Villa Romana del Casale, Piazza Armerina, an early memory years ago and likely my first tasting. And my husband's aunt skinning one in her house in a small lava stone village on the slopes of Mt Etna in the late 90's. And a few years ago watching Giovanni, one of Polizzi’s fruiterers, removing the skin of this little 'pear' with the ease of an expert. All were bare handed.

I have read where the little prickles can be reduced by washing the fruit down but that it doesnt get rid of all of those skin piercing spikes. So still take care!

Here's how to peel this prickly fruit. Plus the washing tip.

Lots of extra 'Indian Fig' detail

With vibrant ruby red, white and golden yellow and orange flesh the fruit of the Indian Fig, filled with seeds, is light and refreshing. This prickly fruit has inspired artists, fashion designers, festivals, gardeners, perfume makers, liqueur makers and potters.

For more detail (commercial, culinary and cultural) about the fruit of the prickly pear (I didn't know that there are three distinct types, they are exported to France among other countries, and that a second flowering produces the Sicilians' preferred one...'Bastardoni'!) click here ... and here

Snapshots of Fici d' India

Giovanni, Polizzi Generosa, September 2016

On the slopes of Mt Etna, August 2018 the pads of the prickly pear plant crowned.

Castellana Sicula, Madonie, June 2018

Moor head crowned and ears draped with Fico d' India, made by a Caltagirone potter. On the dining table in The Sicilian House, Polizzi Generosa.

May 2019 Santa Flavia

An elderly Sicilian man (the 'grandfather Eolo' of the artist) peels a ruby red Indian Fig. This shot is part of a large work of art "Peter Robb, M and the Prickly Pear" by the Australian Sicilian artist, Eolo Paul Bottaro. The painting hangs in the entry to The Sicilian House, Polizzi Generosa. (The story behind this wonderful painting will feature in a future blog.)