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" Two weeks ago, for the first time ever, I attended my neighborhood block party and did not enter the food competition. It nearly broke my competitive little baker&amp;#039;s heart, but seeing as how I was getting married in six days I decided the nabe could do without one of my pasta salad or bar cookie creations this year. I did, however, get to judge the competition\u2014in the appetizer category\u2014and for the first time ever I sampled figs. They were stuffed with goat cheese, wrapped in prosciutto (which I removed) and baked, then drizzled with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Scrumptious Just a few days later, my coworker Holly shared with me her adventures with figs. I knew you&amp;#039;d appreciate her story, too: &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s fig season. Or so I have heard. (Doing a quick Google search just now, looks like fig season can stretch from late July through early fall depending on where you live.) And I have to admit: I&amp;#039;ll always been a little afraid of the fig. It&amp;#039;s an irrational fear, I agree. They&amp;#039;re beautiful, friendly-looking fruits. But I&amp;#039;m just never sure what to do with them. Eat them whole? Cut them in half? Arrange them on a plate and photograph them? Do they go with ice cream? Shortbread cookies? Arugula? (Another irrational fear of mine: spelling &amp;quot;arugula.&amp;quot;) But this weekend, I overcame my fear. A good friend came over for a cooking/brainstorming session and together, we put those figs in a tart\u2014a Bacon, Carmelized Shallot, Goat Cheese, Rosemary, Fig Tart. &amp;quot;Here&amp;#039;s what we did: We pressed a pie crust into a tart pan and baked it at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. (My friend used her favorite pie crust recipe; I&amp;#039;m sure your favorite would work equally well.) We cut 12-15 figs in half, brushed them with olive oil, and broiled them for about 6 minutes (until they were toasty brown on top). We thinly sliced about a half pound each of shallots and bacon and then sauteed them both together\u2014along with a couple of teaspoons of chopped fresh rosemary\u2014until the bacon crisped up and the shallots softened and carmelized (about 15-20 mins on med-low heat). We spooned the bacon/shallot mixture into the semi-baked tart crust and nestled the figs in next. We crumbled one 3-inch wide/2-inch deep round of goat cheese on top (it didn&amp;#039;t end up being quite enough to our taste. Will we buy two rounds next time? Definitely. Are we crazy for goat cheese? Definitely. So you decide where you fall on the goat cheese spectrum.) We slid the tart into the oven and baked it at 400 for 15 minutes. &amp;quot;We served it with a Boston lettuce/watercress salad\u2014which turned out to be a lovely, slightly spicy counterpoint to all the sweet, richness going on in the tart. And now I can say with ringing confidence: figs are our friends!&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.redbookmag.com/food-recipes/advice/a4043/fig-seasona-few-ideas/>