Sicilian Flavors at Monsu

Adam Erace tries Monsu where he discovers Sicilian cooking and ingredients aren’t the flavors of your typical South Philly Italian restaurant.

There’s cinnamon in the lasagna and apricots in the osso buco. Crushed cardamom and coriander dance around lamb loin cooked in the style of horse meat. And that grassy-sweet magenta halo surrounding an oozing block of pan-fried scamorza? Puréed prickly pear. According to McAndrews, “They grow wild all over Sicily,” where they’re known as fico d’India (Indian fig) or, more simply, bastardone (big bastards).

Monsu Mash [City Paper]