Wise Winter Wine Desserts
By Mary Ann Esposito, Author of Ciao Italia Five-Ingredient Favorites: Quick and Delicious Recipes from an Italian Kitchen
Our diets are in peril! Like clockwork, as soon as the New Year begins, so do all those ads telling us how unfit we are. There are so many diet plans that would have us beat the battle of the bulge as we enter a new year. But while we all scramble in the grocery store to find something healthy to cook, my sweet tooth has kicked in and I am craving something sinfully sweet and succulent to help ward off the winter blues. That nagging feeling leads me right to the produce department. Aha, caught you! Maybe you thought that I was going to recommend some cake, pie, cookies or ice cream. Not a chance. I am thinking sweets that are good for you like baked apples with walnuts and figs, or pears baked in wine. All the ingredients to make them are readily available and the recipes are easy to make. But the best part is how surprisingly good they taste, leaving you not caring a wit if you ever eat pie, cake or cookies again. Your diet, if you stay on it, will thank you.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 12 large figs whole, dried, 1/2 pound
- 1/2 cup walnuts chopped
- 1 cup red wine dry
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1 tablespoon orange zest grated
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F
- Lightly grease an 8 inch casserole dish with the butter.
- Make a slit with a small knife near the stem of each fig just large enough to form a small hole with your finger. Stuff some of the walnuts into each fig and place them stem side up in the casserole side by side.
- Heat the wine and honey in a small saucepan just until the mixture is smooth. Pour over the figs.
- Sprinkle them with the zest and cover the casserole tightly with foil or oven proof cover.
- Bake 30 minutes.
- Cool the casserole to room temperature.
- Place 3 figs on each of the 4 dessert bowls and pour some of the wine sauce over each.
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