Figs with Blue Cheese
Figues au Roquefort a delicious recipe from France. There I would use young Roquefort cheese, a sharp blue sheep cheese from Roquefort-sur-Soulzon, a small village in the Massif Central. But any medium sharp blue cheese, like Gorgonzola, Great Hill Blue or Humboldt Fog will do.
I normally serve the figs with thinly sliced smoked ham or salami and when in France, I use Saucisson (salami) from the Ardèche or Noir de Bigorre, the delicious ham from the Pyrénées region.
Yield: 4 servings
Time: 15 minutes
Ingredients:
- 4 large ripe firm figs
- 4 heaping tsp of medium sharp Roquefort or any other medium sharp blue vein cheese
- 4 Tbsp pine nuts
- 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 8 thin slices of salami, cured ham or prosciutto (optional)
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 450°F (230°C). Wash figs and cut them in half lengthwise. Using a melon baller, scoop out enough flesh of the interior of the fig, roughly the size of a teaspoon. Take care not to pierce the skin. Set aside.
Roast 3 tablespoons of pine nuts in a small frying pan, shaking now and then, making sure they do not burn. Set aside to cool.
Mash the blue cheese lightly with a fork. Mix 1 tablespoon of the roasted pine nuts with the blue cheese. Arrange the fig halves in a baking pan, lightly coated with olive oil. Fill the scooped out fig halves out with the cheese-pine nut mixture. Roast figs just long enough for the cheese to melt, about 5-7 minutes.
Arrange two slices of cured ham or a couple of slices of salami on each of the 4 salad plates. Put the 2 fig halves on top. Sprinkle the remaining pine nuts around each plate, add a few greens and serve it as a first course.
