A happy fig tree can grow hundreds of fruit, so how best to use them all up?

I stared wide-eyed at the fig tree on the terrace: this Aeolian tree was like none I’d seen before. It was heavy with thousands and thousands of results, and crowded the breeze with an intoxicating perfume, accented by the balmy heat. I picked “the worlds largest” bulbous fig I could find and made a bite. The flesh was jammy and sugared, yet too refreshing. I gobble another and another, gorging like a bird preparing for migration, even though we were only hiking up a volcano.

A glut of figs can be turned into a million and one different desserts, and are at their simplest only dehydrated in the sun. The foliages make an exquisite ice-cream, simply by infusing them with the milk, while under-ripe fruits cultivate beautifully when preserved in sugar. Today’s galette works with either somewhat lettuce or highly ripe figs.

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Read more: theguardian.com