Figs with Blue Cheese (Figues au Roquefort)
Serves: 4
Preparation time: 15 min.
In France one 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.
The figs can be served with thinly sliced ham or salami. In France I suggest Saucisson (salami) from the Ardèche or Noir de Bigorre, the delicious ham from the Pyrénées region.
Ingredients:
- 8 ripe but firm figs, I use the Madeleine des Deux Saisons variety from my garden
- 8 heaping teasp. of medium sharp Roquefort or any other medium sharp blue vein cheese
- 9 tbsp. pine nuts
- 1 tbsp. olive oil
- 8 thin slices of salami, cured ham or prosciutto
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 225°C (450°F). Wash figs and cut them in half lengthwise. Using a melon baller scoop out enough flesh of the figs interior, roughly the size of a teaspoon. Take care not to pierce the skin. Set aside.
Roast 4 tbsp. of pine nuts in a small frying pan, shaking now and then, making sure they do not burn. Set aside to cool.
Mesh the blue cheese lightly with a fork. Mix 3 tbsp. of the roasted pine nuts with the blue cheese. Arrange the fig halves in a baking pan, lightly coated with the 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 Jambon Cru (ham) or a couple of slices of Saucisson (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.