Refueled by the adrenaline rush of competing on last night’s premiere of the hot new Food Network show Cutthroat Kitchen (woohoo!), I am even more excited to try new recipes and to keep enhancing my culinary arsenal. With so many lovely fruits are in season, right now, I had a burning and savoury desire to try something new with figs…

My evil master plan:

Serve roasted black figs with homemade goat’s milk ricotta, wrap up in prosciutto bundles and summarily devour.

I began with this lovely recipe I was excited to come across. Of course, I added some Little Ninja Chef twists:

• substitute maple syrup for honey (because I believe everything in this world should be pleasantly slathered in maple syrup)
• instead of alcohol, a Xeres vinegar
• 1/2 tsp of fleur de sel
• a healthy drizzle/1-2 Tbsp of olive oil (because I believe everything in this world should be pleasantly slathered in olive oil)

Look at that, roasted figs in Xeres vinegar, thyme, olive oil and maple syrup, all fresh out of the oven. Done in an easy 20 minutes, gone in 5.

I give you roasted figs in Xeres vinegar, thyme, olive oil and maple syrup, served atop a bed of homemade goat’s milk ricotta and resting by a cigar of prosciutto, all pleasantly surrounded by a ringlet of balsamic glaze and fleur de sel. (And look, you can even anthropomorphize it into a cute little snail). As predicted, this was indeed gone in a mere 5 minutes flat.