Celebrating the Fig

 What can be finer than a perfectly ripe fig?  I've loved figs since I was little, so I am bound to be drawn to them. It is the time of year that brings ripened figs from across the continent and sea, and I certainly enjoyed the two trays of Turkish figs from Wells Fruit and Veg up at Rocky Mountain Nursery bought last Thursday.  At £4.00 a tray with more than 1.5Kg of fruit in each one, it was just the moment to feast and to make preserves for the winter. 

Fig and Orange Preserve infused with bay

I made some standard fig conserve, using the zest of two oranges and their juice, with just half their weight in sugar, meaning 500g sugar for 1Kg prepared fruit, plus three bay leaves. I didn't add any extra spice, this time.  If you follow this link, it will lead you to various Fig preserves I set out over several years over on my other blog.

For my second lot of Fig Preserves, I wanted to make something a little different.  Inspiration came flooding in.  As I was preparing the figs, my mind wandered over to the holiday we had near Dubrovnik and the dried figs I had bought straight from the grower at a small market for locals. Then memories from our holiday to Sicily ten years ago got me inspired. Though since it was spring, there were no fresh figs, enjoying sweet meats made with dried figs and  pine nuts and other delicacies as well as our visit to the famous Marsala wineries and our tastings at the Cantine Florio. It is no wonder therefore that when I was leafing through 'Mes Confitures' by Christine Ferber and coming across her recipe for Fig and Gewürztraminer with Pine Nuts, I thought why not create a preserve to celebrate Sicily!

Again on Sicily we visited a farm on the slopes of Mount Etna and enjoyed one of those lunches for ever remembered, with all produce from the farm, followed by a walk amongst their lemon orchards and an invitation to pick just two lemons each.  Instead of orange I used the finely zested aromatic skin and juice of two lemons.

Fig, Marsala and Pine Nut Preserve. The detailed recipe is on my other blog: 

Fig, Marsala and Pine Nut Preserve - Celebrating the Fig and Sicily

This will be the perfect filling for tarts or flans in the Italian or Sicilian style, with a covering of a Ricciarelli.