Sweet, jammy figs, crunchy with seeds, are a perfect match for creamy, salty blue cheese. Add a few slivers of jamón serrano, and you’ll be blown away. I also love a version of this served with sliced tomatoes and garlic croutons.
As with most recipes that are more assembly than cooking, there are various ways to present this combination, depending on how you plan to serve it:
To serve as a tapa, simply halve the figs and pile on the jamón and blue cheese, to eat in a single bite. For an elegant first course, slice the figs and arrange them decoratively on a plate with rolled up slices of jamón and blue cheese crumbles. As part of a salad course, cut open the figs to stuff with blue cheese and garnish with slivers of jamón. You see? Same ingredients, three different presentations. Genius.
- 12 mission figs, stems removed
- 6 slices jamón serrano (or prosciutto)
- 6 tablespoons crumbled blue cheese
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
For a first course: Score deep X’s into each fig, leaving the bottoms intact. Gently open them up and stuff with the crumbled blue cheese. Top with slivers of jamón, drizzle with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper.
For a salad course: Slice the figs and arrange the slices on 6 plates. Roll up the slices of jamón and place one in the middle of each plate. Sprinkle with crumbled blue cheese, drizzle with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper.
