With chocolate and marzipan for an unusual dessert
The French novelist Andre Gide described figs as, 'the closed room where marriages are made' and the fruit has long been considered an aphrodisiac. The Romans ate huge amounts of both fresh and dried figs. The finest fresh ones were an expensive delicacy, while the cheap ones were described by Pliny as the food of slaves. They're still popular today as Anna Mcnamee discovered when she went to visit the food writer Diana Henry who uses them to make a most unusual dessert.
There are other recipes for figs in Diana's books Crazy Water, Pickled Lemons ISBN 1 84000 501 7 and The Gastropub Cookbook ISBN 1 84000 742 7. Both are published by Mitchell Beazley
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