Figs at Breakfast

Yesterday I picked up a big tray of plump, delicious fresh figs. I love them eaten just as they are, out of hand; when I was a kid, my uncle in Florida had a fig tree in his back yard and he'd always encourage us to pick and eat all the figs we wanted from that tree. Fresh figs still remind me of him and those summer visits.

Even so, I can't eat this whole package of figs by myself and my wife and daughter aren't so fond of fresh figs as I am. I thought about making that classic appetizer, grilled figs wrapped with prosciutto, only I haven't got any prosciutto in the house right now. But what's this? SCRAPPLE! How joyous!

I drizzled a bit of olive oil on a hot griddle and set a few halved figs, cut side down, on it to caramelize. While they cooked, slices of scrapple were sizzling nearby to crispy-outside-creamy-inside porky perfection. I served them up as a side to sunny-side-up eggs.

Now grilled figs wrapped in prosciutto is pretty wonderful, but grilled figs with scrapple is pretty damn good too. Fresh figs lose a lot of their "greeny" flavor when they're lightly browned, developing a rich and deep earthy sweetness that just seems perfectly at home with the sagey peppery porkiness of the scrapple. We will certainly do it again.

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