Roasted Figs with Goat Cheese & Balsamic-Honey Sauce

Since fresh figs are currently in season, I looked for a delicious-sounding fig appetizer/side dish. I found this easy winner at popsugar.com (http://www.popsugar.com/food/Easy-Roasted-Fig-Goat-Cheese-Recipe-9205886). Not only was it easy and tasty, but I used the extra balsamic sauce on pork loin chops that I had prepared as the main course.

Since the recipe on the web serves 6-8 and there were only two of us, I used half the number of figs, but left the ingredients in the sauce recipe unchanged. The smaller number of figs was perfect for the two of us.

The reason I did not change the sauce recipe is that I thought the reduced amount of ingredients would not work well in even a very small saucepan. I then used the extra sauce on the pork loin chops. That sauce was so tasty, I will make the sauce just for the pork chops in the future.

As the recipe suggested, I used mission figs. I purchased them at Publix, which has a buy-one-get-one-free sale on several types of figs this week.

Below is the recipe with the reduced number of figs:

Ingredients

6 Black Mission figs, halved vertically
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar (I used raspberry balsamic)
3 tablespoons honey
2 - 3 ounces of soft goat cheese
Flaky sea salt, to taste

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400ºF

While the oven preheats, melt the butter in a small saucepan, and add the balsamic vinegar, honey, and a hefty pinch of sea salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer, and cook about 5 minutes, or until slightly thickened.

Place the figs cut-side up in a baking dish. Top each fig half with 1/2 teaspoon to a full teaspoon of goat cheese. Drizzle the balsamic vinegar syrup over the figs.

Roast the figs in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes, until they are very soft. (It took 15 minutes in our Breville toaster oven.)

Arrange on a platter and sprinkle with flaky salt.

Thank you popsugar.com!