Easy Fig Bruschetta
Fun Fact: I have two boyfriends.
I am an open book. I have nothing to hide and I always try to live my life the best way that I can and use any experience as a teaching moment.
Over 8 years ago I met Chase, my fiancé. We met our freshman year at NC State and have been together ever since. A couple of years ago we met Jorge. Jorge is a great guy, he's funny, charismatic, handsome, smart and so well versed. We became good friends and had been friends up until 7 months ago when we decided to become boyfriends. I won't go into too much detail about it but it works, we are all very happy and love each other and there is no jealousy or weirdness about it. Everything is pretty much normal, except for the fact that it's three of us instead of just two.
Things are so normal in fact that Jorge's family did not bat an eye when he told them we were dating. We enjoy spending time with his siblings and his parents like both Chase and I. I like to think I'm the favorite because his mom loves MasterChef and she is always giving me food.
Jorge's parents have two big fig shrubs at their house but none of them like figs. I know, weird. I told them I loved figs but it was always so hard to find fresh figs at the grocery store. So one day his mom tells me she harvested some figs and gave me a giant bowl of figs. I didn't know what to do with so many of them because Chase doesn't care for them either. Well lucky for me, Jorge's sister was in town visiting from Houston. She had just spent some time hanging out with my pal Cesar who spoiled her with his famous tacos.
Being the competitive queen that I am I wanted to also do my part and impress her. So I invited Caro and Jorge's parents over for dinner. I was trying to conceptualize a menu that would be delish and a little over the top, because that's just who I am. I also wanted to figure out something to do with all these figs! So I decided to make some jam and can it for later and serve the figs in such a delicious way that despite them not liking figs they would've gobbled them up.
So with a task at hand I broke out my MasterChef apron and got to work. I prepared a 4 course meal with all kinds of goodies and even got to use some edible flowers. Everything look extra fancy with edible flowers especially if you're plating with tweezers.
I decided to make use of the figs every way I could and served them as a delicious fig bruschetta. The recipe is really and with Fall just around the corner it was a great way to utilize those nice earthy Fall flavors.
I will say that this may require some extra prep time if you're going to make the orange fig jam from scratch using fresh figs otherwise a store-bought jar of regular fig jam will do the job.
Serves 4-6
Ingredients:
1/2 cup fig jam*
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
pinch of salt
1 french baguette
olive oil
1/2 cup ricotta
salt and pepper
handful of fresh figs, about 6-8
1/3 cup walnuts, toasted
3-4 sprigs of fresh thyme
Preheat oven to 400.
Combine fig jam and 2 tbsp of balsamic vinegar in a medium sauce pan. Cook over medium heat for about 5-7 minutes, until the jam appears thick and balsamic vinegar has reduced. Season with a pinch of salt. Remove from heat and let cool.
Cut baguette at an angle, drizzle with a bit of olive oil and toast in oven until golden brown. About 3-4 minutes on each side. While bread is toasting cut figs into quarters.
In a small bowl season ricotta with a pinch of salt and fresh cracked black pepper. Spread a small spoonful of ricotta on each toast point. drizzle a bit of the balsamic fig mixture. Top off with a couple of fresh fig quarters, toasted walnuts and a few fresh thyme leaves.
Bon appetit!
*To make the fig jam from scratch it's fairly simple but a little time consuming.
1/2 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 lb fresh figs
1 small orange, sliced
1/2 tsp vanilla
bring to a boil the sugar and water. Add vanilla, figs and orange slices. Cook on low-medium heat for 30-40 minutes until all the ingredients are soft and the orange peel is tender. Using an immersion blender or a food processor blend mixture until smooth. Let cool.