fig & blue cheese pasta with lemon & rosemary

a friend shared this recipe for creamy fig pasta with lemon & rosemary with me a few weeks ago and i’m kicking myself for not having tried it sooner – it really is delicious.

it was a combination of things which drew me to it – the cooler weather is making woody herbs much more appealing, plus we’ve been having some wonderful figs and, of course, i’m a huge fan of blue cheese.

i‘ve left the recipe below as i was given, but i did adapt it a little – i used a very mild blue cheese so increased the quantity of that and reduced the cream accordingly; i also used fromage frais instead of cream, just because that’s what i had in.

the resulting dish has a rich autumnal sweetness about it but this is balanced by the rosemary, chilli and lemon zest, all of which stop it from being too creamy and rich.

creamy fig pasta with lemon & rosemary (serves 4)

tagliatelle

20g butter

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 tablespoon of finely chopped rosemary

1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped

12 ripe black figs, quartered (i kept 1 fig for garnish, just cutting it into thin slices)

zest and juice of 1 lemon

50g gorgonzola or dolcelatte cheese

100ml double cream

50g parmesan grated

bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and cook your pasta.

meanwhile, in a heavy bottomed pan, heat the butter and fry the garlic, rosemary and chilli for 1 minute. top and tail the figs, cut into quarters and place flesh side down in the pan. cook for a couple of minutes, then turn them over and allow them to break down.

add the lemon zest and season with freshly ground pepper and a little salt (your cheese will also add salt so don’t add much at this stage).

add the cheese to the figs and allow it to melt. add the cream and simmer gently to reduce, before stirring in half lemon juice and half of the grated parmesan.

taste the cream sauce, it will be sweet and rich, hot, sour and salty. the lemon will cut the richness so that it is not too cloying. the blue cheese gives a depth to the flavour. adjust the seasoning accordingly.

strain the pasta and mix in the pasta sauce. season with lots of black pepper, the remaining lemon juice and grated parmesan. garnish with fig slices.