You can probably tell that I have a huge fig fixation looking at the number of photos of it that I clicked at La Boqueria. I love how they look – deep purple with streaks of green and a shimmery pink jewel-like inside. Whenever I buy them, I almost always eat them straight out of the box or them bake into a fig and frangipane tart. (It’s a sorry state with just one recipe to rely on, I know. Point me to a recipe that will blow my knee-high autumn socks off?)
But back to the goat cheese stuffed figs. I’ve always wanted to make them, but somehow I never had figs and goat cheese around at the same time. That’s mostly because I’m not the kind who plans out a ten minutes recipe ahead of time and puts it on a shopping list (unless it’s a dinner party – then you must put figs and goat cheese on list right away(!)). A few days ago, I was in luck. A plump punnet of Turkish figs from the market was sitting on my table and a wheel of fresh goat cheese wrapped in paper was waiting to meet its fate in the refrigerator. Finally.
You need 4 ingredients to make this: figs, goat cheese, honey, and the fourth is where you get to play with flavors: thyme, toasted walnuts, pine nuts, or coarse black pepper (my new favourite – perfectly pungent to balance the sweetness of the honey and figs). There’s no recipe here, really. Simply slit the figs until you’re 3/4th the way through and stuff with the goat cheese. Lay it on a baking tray and pop it into the oven preheated at 180C/350F for 10-12 minutes. Once out, sprinkle with coarsely ground pepper and a happy drizzle of honey. Eat warm.
If you like, you can also wrap the figs in proscuitto before popping them into the oven.