Weekly Dish

I love fresh figs. If you’ve only ever had the dried ones or the filling inside a newton, there is no comparison with the drippy sweetness of the fleshy fruit straight off the tree. My in-laws have a fig tree, and my mother-in-law is so sweet to save bags of them for me because she knows I love them so. Often, if they’ve been frozen for a short period of time and when the fruit was just ripe, I can eat them all by themselves, straight out of the fridge. Or with a drizzle of cream in the mornings. But sometimes, the frozen ones lose their shape and some of their juices–these are the perfect ones to cook with.

Figs and sausages may seem an unlikely pair. The recipe comes from my most beloved aphrodesiac cookbook, Intercourses. (It feels strange to say that to you, but I really do love the book for its recipes. Honest.) I felt really adventurous the first time I made it. It seemed a bit strange on paper, but really simple too, and I had a bag of cooking figs on hand. Since then, every time I have figs I need to use, this is the dish I make.

Cooking the figs with the vinegar, lemon, and spices gives them a rich, jammy flavor, and letting those flavors mingle overnight gives the dish an interesting complexity and depth of flavor. Your tastebuds move from the tang of the vinegar and lemon to the soft sweetness of the figs, spiced with clove, cinnamon, and nutmeg, and on to the salty, meaty sausage. Although the dish is not terribly appetizing to look at (I’ve photographed it on two different occasions now–it just ain’t pretty), once you’ve made the fig sauce, it comes together in about 20 minutes. I have served it over rice, toast points, and grits; last night we had it over cous cous. And although I haven’t tried it, the recipe might work with canned figs too–I’d just rinse off any syrup. This sauce is sweet enough on its own; in fact, I think it would be good in a variety of ways. Perhaps I’ll experiment with the leftovers…
Figs and Sausages

1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
A couple of thin lemon slices
4 cloves
Half a cinnamon stick
1/2 t. grated or ground nutmeg
2 cups fresh or frozen figs
1 pound of your favorite Italian sausage links, split in half lengthwise
2 T. olive oil
1 T. white wine
In a small saucepan, heat the vinegar, sugar, lemon, cloves, cinnamon stick, and nutmeg until the sugar dissolves, about 6-8 minutes. Add the figs and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for another 10 minutes or so (longer is fine too–just stir occasionally). Cool the syrup completely and refrigerate overnight, or at least for a few hours. Heat the olive oil and white wine over medium heat in a skillet. Cook until the sausages are cooked through and the wine is evaporated, about 10 minutes. Serve topped with the fig sauce.

Adapted from Intercourses, by Martha Hopkins and Randall Lockridge.

Posted: Wednesday, January 18th, 2006 at 8:36 am Filed under: Main Dish, Sauces and Condiments, Meat. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.