October 17, 2009

• I’m on a roll.  Tonight it was fig and walnut pizza with gorganzola.  This may be one of the best recipes I’ve come up with yet.  I went to epicurious.com to see what other people did with their figs — I have a tree — to figure out what to pair with them and how you cook figs.

  I decided to combine several ideas.  One was cooking red onion in port.  They suggested balsamic vinegar and brown sugar but I tried some honey and port.  That was lacking so I added a little butter and brown sugar.  I’m so thrilled to know how to make those red onions soft and sweet.

  What I was looking for was a glaze for the walnuts, a way to candy them while they baked on top of the figs.  I also was nervous about the taste of the figs so I wanted to be able to sweeten them.

  The other question, once I decided to use Trader Joe’s self-bake pizza dough was the sauce.  I knew I wanted to use gorganzola which would preclude anything but a pretty bland white sauce.  I found some marscapone and creme fraiche and combined that with cream cheese.  It was the perfect backdrop for the sharp cheese which I sprinkled generously. 

  Two recipes called for baking the halved figs in olive oil.  The results were not impressive.  They tasted bland and looked undercooked.  That’s why I thought of pizza, a way to hit them with a lot of heat and pair them with vibrant textures and tastes. 

  Placing the walnut halves in the middle of the figs and breaking up the rest to throw over the cheese added a nice mellowness.  The candied red onion and glaze were the sweetness and color it needed and I drizzled that everywhere.

  It’s sweet, it’s savory and it used up my figs. 

  • 2:16 am
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