Recipe

Fig and Prosciutto Bruschetta

Name: Fig and Prosciutto Bruschetta
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 15 min
Yield: 4
Ingredients: 12 slices baguette or 4 large slices sourdough, about 1.5 cm thick; 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus extra to finish; 1 garlic clove, halved; 125 g fresh ricotta (½ cup); 6 ripe figs, halved or torn; 6 slices prosciutto (about 90 g), torn in half; 2 tsp honey; 1 tsp balsamic vinegar (optional); A few thyme leaves, mint leaves or a handful of rocket; Flaky salt and freshly ground black pepper

Chargrilled garlic toast, seasoned ricotta, ripe torn figs and prosciutto draped on while the toast is hot, finished with honey. A 15-minute starter for fig season.

Serves 4
Prep 10 min
Cook 5 min

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Fig and Prosciutto Bruschetta — Photo: amiraxgelcola / Pixabay

Hot garlicky toast, cool ricotta, a soft torn fig, a fold of salty prosciutto and a thread of honey. Five things, fifteen minutes, and it looks like you tried much harder.

Recipe inspiration

Figs are a short, fragile season: late summer into autumn, and a ripe one bruises if you look at it. So when the soft, cheap ones turn up at the greengrocer, this is what to do with them. It's the starter for a long lunch outside, the plate you hand round while the barbecue heats, or dinner for two with a glass of something cold. No oven, one pan, and every part can be bought on the way home.

About this dish

Bruschetta comes from bruscare, Romanesco dialect for "to toast over coals". In Tuscany and Umbria it began as plain grilled bread for tasting the year's new olive oil; Elizabeth David wrote it up in English in 1954, and the Tuscans still eat it bare in November as fettunta, "oily slice". The topping is a second, separate Italian habit: ripe figs with raw ham.

That ham is prosciutto crudo, a hind leg of pork cured with sea salt for nine months to three years. Parma's is a little nutty; San Daniele's is darker and sweeter. Both are sliced so thin you can read through them, which is why a hot toast changes them so fast.

What you taste: a crackly, charred crust with a chewy middle, a sting of raw garlic, cool and milky ricotta, then the fig, jammy and honeyed with its crunch of seeds, and the salt of the ham. Honey and a drop of balsamic bring the sweet and the sour together.

Additions & substitutions

Burrata instead of ricotta: tear it over just before serving. Richer and wetter, so build on the plate, not ahead.
Goat's cheese or soft blue cheese: sharper, and it stands up to very sweet figs. See cheese.
Vegetarian: skip the ham; add toasted walnuts and a few flakes of salt. Shaved pecorino also brings the salt back.
Vegan: mash white beans with lemon and olive oil instead of ricotta, use walnuts, and maple syrup instead of honey.
No fresh figs: a thin layer of fig jam under the ricotta. Out of season it beats hard, pale imported figs.
Firm figs: halve them and press the cut sides into a hot dry pan for a minute. They soften and the sugars catch.
Other cured ham: jamón serrano works the same way. Speck is smokier and fattier; tear it smaller.
Greens: mint is Jamie Oliver's pick; thyme suits the honey; rocket adds pepper. See fresh herbs.

Expert tips

Shopping

Figs that give under a gentle press, skin starting to wrinkle at the stem, maybe a bead of syrup at the base. Sniff them: sour means overripe. Slightly firm ones ripen in 1 to 2 days on the bench, not in the fridge.
Prosciutto sliced to order at the deli if you can, laid flat on paper, not stacked. Pre-packed works; peel the slices apart while cold.
Fresh ricotta from the deli tub, not the long-life one. It's creamier and less grainy.
A day-old baguette or sourdough. Slightly stale bread toasts crisper and holds a topping longer.

Preparing

Slice the bread 1.5 cm thick. Thinner burns before it's crisp inside; thicker stays soft in the middle.
Oil the bread, not the pan. Brush both sides, so it fries into the char lines.
Rub the garlic on the hot toast. The crust works like a grater; three swipes is plenty, more and it burns your tongue.
Have everything torn and ready before the toast comes off. The prosciutto needs the heat, so build each one straight away.

Make ahead, or for a crowd

Mix the seasoned ricotta and tear the figs up to 2 hours ahead; keep them cold, covered.
Toast the bread no more than an hour ahead, then 2 minutes in a hot oven or back on the pan before you build. The prosciutto needs warm toast.
Once the ricotta is on, eat within 20 minutes; after that the toast goes soft.
For a crowd, toast a whole baguette, set out bowls of ricotta, figs, prosciutto and honey, and let everyone build their own. Allow 3 pieces each as a starter.

Serving suggestions

Before a big plate of lasagna or a risotto, as an Italian antipasto.
With a Greek salad and a bowl of olives for a no-cook lunch.
On a grazing board with cheese, walnuts and honey.
More fresh-produce plates: Fruit and vegetables and Salads.