[Evelyne]

This is so simple that it hardly qualifies as a recipe, but it also happens to be delicious and the first fresh figs are making their appearance at the market, so I'm sharing it with you anyways.

Figues rôties au miel

-Fresh figs, as many as needed (I took two as a dessert for one)
-The best liquid honey you can find, 1 tsp per fig (I suppose any honey is good, but why not aim high? Mine came from my designated honey-man who comes down from the mountains every saturday to sell his wares at the farmers' market)

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Incise the figs as though you were going to cut them in four, but stop the cut two-thirds of the way down. Gently separate the fig quarters a little bit a pour a teaspoonful of honey into each. Roast in the oven for about 10 min. Enjoy straight out of the pan, scraping it well with your spoon to get every last drop of warm honey, or transfer to bowls to serve, but that means more dishes and less shameless pan-scraping. A little plain yogurt helps balance out the sweetness of the honey, too. I've been told that a sprig of fresh rosemary is a nice addition, too, but didn't have any on hand.

Enjoy!

[Erin]

I adore roasted figs, and totally agree, aim high use good quality honey. I have never eaten them with yogurt before. Usually I break out the chevre.
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"It's watery....and yet there's a smack of ham."

"It's hot ham water."

[Jenna]

Another way that I love to eat figs is with proscuttio. This is an easy, no cook recipe, that is great as a first course or cut in half for apps.

You need:

-fresh figs
-Arugula
-Marscapone cheese
-proscuttio

Slice figs into quarters vertically. Take a piece of proscuttio and spread a layer of the cheese over it. Place a piece of Arugula at one end vertically and a piece of the fig. Roll it into a little bundle. Make a few per person if serving as a first course, or cut in half and stand on a plate if serving as an app.

Easy and delicious. I promise these will be a hit and are sooo easy.

[Saudades]

i love gobbling them down fresh, as is. or simply with prosciutto [or presunto if it must be a la Portuguesa ] but sometimes i bake them in a [puff pastry] tart with say prosciutto and goat's cheese if i want it savoury. make a nice sunday lunch with a green salad. or perhaps a good splash of Grand Manier, sprinkle some almond flakes over the whole thing and bake in the oven.
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live to eat, drink, and travel (to eat and drink, wellofcourse.)

[gisele]

Mmm...yummy figs. A few weeks ago my mum spent hours making fig and ginger jam, and roasted figs, and figs cooked in syrup and then semi-dried, and fig liqour...basically we went nuts on figs!!

The figs I really loved were the ones cooked in the syrup and then semi-dired. It was quite labour/time intensive but oh so worth it.

But for a quick simple recipe we, like others, roasted the figs with good honey and ricotta...was really good.

[Barbara]

Gisele - you must have a fig tree in your back yard as I didn't even see them in the shops this year.
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Barbara

[gisele]

Barbara - My mum's friend has a fig tree. They don't like them and were feeding them to the chooks. We were granted permission to raid the tree every couple of days

[tannazie]

figs! i just encountered them in the farmer's market today for the first time this year. summer is officially here! they are so gorgeous that they hardly need any preparation. i served them with white nectarines, white cherries, and blueberries -- basically summer in fruit form. here's a picture:

http://tannazie.blogspot.com/2006/06/figs-are-here.html

ps, the arugula/fig/mascarpone/prosciutto combo sounds *amazing*

pps, long time reader, first time poster... but i'm so excited about figs i had to share =)

-tannaz

[Franca]

I just started using fig instead of honey or sugar in my roasted chicken recipe (mixing the fig compote with butter and lemon and stuffing it under the skin with thin slices of garlic). I got the idea from a Moroccan restaurant, where they did it with more figs stuffed inside, along with a side dish of sauteed onions and goat cheese. Mmmmm.....
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[Etouffeesivousplay]

if I used a flavored honey do you think it would detract from the recipe...I have a very nice lavendar honey that i would like to use.
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Jessica Lynne