My dad’s barbershop was open 5 days a week, it was closed on Sundays and Wednesdays. Wednesdays were special days as they were generally spent food shopping. My mom and dad would spend most of the day traversing the area finding the best food at the most economical prices. That’s a bit difficult now with today’s gas prices. A review of the day’s newspaper would reveal the bargains for staples at each supermarket and then the fruit markets were shopped for produce.
One of my more favorite treats they brought home from the fruit market were dried figs from Italy. They were dried, strung, looped and packaged, and they were delicious! Nowadays it’s difficult to find dried figs from Italy here in the U.S. Most are from Greece, Turkey or the U.S. No offense to figs grown in those countries but I am partial to figs from Italy, particularly those from Calabria, a region is southern Italy. Calabria is known for outstanding figs and it also happens to be the birthplace of my parents. They were used to those great fresh figs, so ripe, plump and soft that when you pulled it apart, it glistened with honey sweetness. They were never happy with any fresh figs available in the U.S. and when I tasted my first fresh fig from the old country, I finally understood why.
One product I discovered recently was a fig “palloni”, or ball. It’s a ball of Calabrian figs wrapped in fig leaves and roasted for hours. The result is this great molasses like mass of figs. I broke it apart into the individual figs, place a hunk of good Italian gorgonzola on each, drizzled them with zibibbo grape jam and speared them with toothpicks. How delightful! Sweet, salty and just a great combination of flavors.
Tags: calabria, calabrian figs, fig ball, fig palloni, figs, zibibbo
