Figs ripieniA traditional recipe from Mr V - he said his grandmother used to make these in Calabria around Christmas time.

Ingredients:

• grated tangerine rind and tangerine juice
• Walnuts
• grated semi-sweet chocolate
• Sambuca, cognac or homemade grappa (moonshine) -your choice
• Fresh figs - Turkish ones (apparently they are bigger and better)

Create your own quantities of the above ingredients as you may want it more fruity and nutty or more alcohol laden.

Instructions:

• Make a cut in each fig so you can open it wide enough to fill
• Mix the juice of one tangerine and some grated tangerine rind with your alcohol of choice
  
• Fill each fig with a little of this juice mixture until it is absorbed
• Fill each fig with some chopped walnuts and grated chocolate
  
• Store in a container with bay leaves as the bay leaf gives it a distinct flavour and fragrance

Serve before dinner with an aperitif or after dinner with fruit/cheese & wine.

Fico d'India

Some yummy prickly pears we had this past weekend. They were probably shipped in from Sicily so are a little faded and not as tasty as they would be if they came fresh from the plant-but still great.

They are a Sicilian favorite and are always around at parties and special occasions. The taste is very sweet depending on how ripe they are but many people find them hard to eat due to their texture and the difficulty to peel them without getting very fine needles in your fingers.

Their insides are not fleshly like a peach but are harder and full of seeds which need to be massaged around the mouth and swallowed whole. As a child, I would spit out each one (which took ages) but now I can savor the seeds and texture as part of the whole experience.

It is hard to explain the food experience - it is very unique, my only suggestion is to get one, be very careful peeling it and try it for yourself.

In Sicily they are called fico d’India or fichi d’India – depending on who is saying it, in which dialect and in which region of Sicily. Yes, it is that diverse from town to town.

In scientific terms Wikipedia tells us that prickly pears, also called Opuntia is a genus in the cactus family Cactaceae.

They have two kinds of spines; large, smooth, fixed spines and small, hairlike spines called glochids that easily penetrate skin and detach from the plant.

A true Sicilian can cut these without getting any needles in them. There are different ways to slice and dice these to avoid the needles but it is mostly done the way your father or grandfather cut it. Some people use dishwashing gloves, newspaper, brown paper bags and more… but they are usually laughed at.

Another interesting tidbit:
Charles Darwin was the first to note that these cacti have thigmotactic anthers. This means that as its anthers are touched they curl over, depositing their pollen. This movement can be seen by gently poking the anthers of an open Opuntia flower. Am going to try this next time I am in Sicily.