Pasta nest with prickly pear and chicken

Nidos de pasta con higo chumbo y pollo

The Spanish conquistadors brought the prickly pear back with them from the New World as an ornamental plant. Its tasty fruit can be bought fresh or dried at any market in Canary Islands. However, much more profitable is to use the plant as a host for the cochineal beetle, from which the highly sought carmine red food coloring is obtained. Cochineal production soon became the islands' main source of income, due to the enormous demand for the coloring in the textile industry. But in 1880 the market collapsed with the development of artificial aniline coloring.
By Tapas Together Edinburgh