All posts tagged figs

fig, prosciutto, and blue cheese stuffed pork

a few weeks ago, i made fig and prosciutto pizza. it was delicious. but something more amazing happened. one of my friends from gw, chrissy commented on that post and suggested that i try fig and blue cheese stuffed pork tenderloin with balsamic fig onion compote. does that not sound just amazing?!?

so i did a little bit of research online to see how we should make this stuffed pork based on the ingredients we happened to have in the kitchen. we ended up butterflying the pork loin and stuffing it with fig preserves, blue cheese, and prosciutto and then used the same herb rub we used for the apple stuffed pork loin roast. we also served it with an onion marmalade (recipe coming soon!).

thank you so much for the suggestion chrissy! the combination of flavors was absolutely delicious – the sweetness from the figs, the creaminess from the blue cheese, and the saltiness from the prosciutto combined with the sweet/sour flavor of the onion marmalade all came together beautifully.

we started by butterflying the poin loin and then smeared a bit of fig preserves on.

then chris layered about 5 slices of prosciutto on top of the fig preserves.

next we sprinkled on some blue cheese crumbles all over the prosciutto.

we then rolled and tied up the pork loin and laid it on a bed of vegetables and apples. but if you have a roasting rack you could definitely just use that instead. next we slathered the herb rub all over the pork loin.

finally, we roasted the stuffed pork for about 1 1/2 hours at 325 degrees F.

oh and don’t forget to allow the roast to rest for a little bit before slicing and serving.

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fig preserves

we had quite a few figs leftover after making the fig and prosciutto pizza but unfortunately, i knew that i wouldn’t be able to do much with them anytime soon. still i didn’t want to waste them and have them go bad so i figured why not make some fig preserves. we can use it to make more pizza, in a pork loin roast, on toast, in homemade fig newtons… the possibilities are endless.

making these fig preserves is a pretty simple process – primarily just cooking the fig and sugar mixture on the stove for a while. but it definitely did take longer than i had expected. still we ended up with some pretty darn good fig preserves. hooray!

to start, chop up your fresh figs…

then put them in a medium saucepan and add the sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice. stir and let the mixture sit for for a bit. oh and be sure to stir it every so often…

after 30 minutes, it will look like this…

next bring the fig mixture to a boil and a keep it at a rolling boil for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally. then mash it up with a potato masher…

at first i thought it was all done – but then i realized that my fig preserves didn’t really look at all like the other fig preserves and jams that i had seen online. it was much lighter and thinner…

so i put it back on the stove and cooked for a while and then it started to look a bit better…

and then finally, it was perfect…

at first i was definitely bummed because i thought i had just wasted a bunch of figs and totally messed up the fig preserves but i’m glad that i was able to fix it and that it all worked out okay. phew!

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fig and prosciutto pizza

when i think of figs, i typically just think of fig newtons. i hadn’t ever really thought about eating figs any other way. we don’t typically keep fresh figs or any other kinds of fig products in the house. but then recently i have seen figs everywhere. okay, not really everywhere but they were used a few times on a couple food network shows that i watch and i had a delicious fig sauce (with roasted pork loin) at a family friends house. the most frequent way that i saw figs used was on a fig and prosciutto pizza.

while i was in denver last week, i actually had a crispy fig and prosciutto at osteria marco an absolutely amazing italian restaurant. the pizza was divine. i loved the sweet and salty combination. i also saw a fig-prosciutto pizza with arugula on the pioneer woman on the food network that looked equally delicious.

well i figured why not try to make it at home and believe it or not, our fig and prosciutto pizza was wonderful. yay!!! i was so excited. in fact, i think i’m going to make it again sometime soon, since we still have a few fresh figs leftover. though, i may try out a homemade fig newton recipe instead. um… decisions, decisions.

anyway, back to the pizza. i used my go to honey wheat pizza crust recipe. then i topped the pizza with fresh fig slices, prosciutto, blue cheese crumbles, mozzarella cheese, and minced garlic.

then once it was done baking, i sprinkled on some chopped green onion.

it was great how the figs got slightly cooked and it’s sweetness was concentrated. i also loved how the prosciutto got a little crispy – though the pioneer woman suggests putting on the prosciutto after the pizza is already cooked. either way, it’s prosciutto – you can’t go wrong.