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Love love love love figs! Vastly prefer fresh to dried. My favorite way to eat them (besides straight out of the carton in large quantities) is to cut them into chunks, place them in ramekins, dot with small globs of goat cheese, drizzle with a little honey and roast for about 5 to 10 minutes, until the cheese turns light brown and gets soft and melty and the kitchen smells like heaven. That, with a nice red wine, is one of my all-time favorite desserts.

Also - Laloo's goat milk ice cream has a fig flavor that I'm dying to try...

LOVE! last fall I brought the goat cheese to the tree. picked a fig, split it, insert tiny lump fo cheese, eat, repeat. heaven

YUM! I love them, too. Last year I made some empanadas stuffed with homemade black pepper fig jam, prosciutto and Gruyere for the 4th of July and everyone loved them. I think I ate my weight in empanadas that day :)

too sweet, icky texture, do not want
:^{

(however, a fig bar is okay now and then)

I have a slight allergy to the leaves of the fig tree, but not to figs themselves, which is strange. I get an itchy rash that needs a lot of Benadryl.

Anyway, I love figs, especially fig bars, Fig Newtons, roasted with honey and almonds, all of the preparations listed above.

This is something I've ALWAYS wanted to try, but I've NEVER had a fresh fig. I imagine them to be like heaven, but I couldn't say for sure.

PumpkinBear, it's true. A bursting ripe fig IS heaven.
JEP, although it is possible that you just don't like figs, I think you really have only encountered bad ones. If they are a little on the hard side, and the skin is too thick, they aren't ripe. I don't know if fig trees grow happily in the midwest, but we have spectacular figs in California.

The best way to tell a ripe fig is to have one as local to it's source as possible. If the bottom and sides are splitting a little with slightly rough edges, the sugars are totally developed and it will seriously drip the sweetest nectar you've ever encountered.

Figs are so delicate, they have to be tree ripened, being consumed right after they are picked. I've had my share of long-traveled under ripe figs, and it's about as unheavenly as perfectly ripe ones are heavenly.

There are some amazing varieties, but Black Mission and Genoa are my faves. Black Missions are the deep purple with pink interior, and Genoas are green with a deep red interior. I can never keep them around long enough to eat them any other way then to just pop them into my mouth. They are amazing with a shaving of Parmesan as well. YUM!

My favorite thing to do with figs, other than eat them fresh, is to poach them in port just to cover. You can add a cinnamon stick if you desire. They keep for quite a while in a container in the fridge. Use them in a salad with goat or gorgonzola, toasted walnuts, arugula or watercress and you can use some of the port in your vinaigrette. Or serve warm with creme fraiche for dessert or brunch.

Such thoughtful comments. There is collective fig love here @ S/E!

@JEP - FigswithBri is right on point. The fresh, ripe figs I ate off my sister's tree were soft, deep purple, and a few were splitting at the bottom. Very jammy pink inside. It was my first time eating fresh figs and it was unforgettable. If you are acquainted with anyone with a fig tree, ask them to try a fresh one off the branch.

@ Christina - You mentioned your allergy to the white resin above. My sister has it too. I think ingesting the resin on the figs I ate off the tree might have contributed to my discomfort later on. I'll be damned if I don't wash them before I enjoy them again.

Agree with many of you that figs are lovely when complimented by cheese. Will look into all suggestions!

To date, my favorite ways to enjoy figs are fresh, dried, "newtoned" (srcbc's recipe looks outstanding), fig sesame jam on a piece of gouda, and black dried mission figs on a focaccia sandwich made with brie/red onion/ lettuce/smoked turkey/and a little dijon mustard.

Has anyone had a fresh mission fig? Are they sweeter and darker than the fruit from a Common Fig? I know very little about fig cultivars.

OMG! YES! I grew up down South and my grandparents, who lived next door, had a lovely Celeste fig tree. I have fond memories of being on the stepladder with my Pa Pere picking figs and eating them as fast as I could. My Grand Mere would run out of the house and yell at us for not washing them first!!!

Grand Mere made wonderful fig preserves out of the remaining harvest. I loved slathering the fig preserves onto French bread with butter, on toast with pb, or onto cheese sandwiches. YUM!!!

Oh, and some of the figs also went to my great aunt, who made a wonderful fig and spice cake that she'd share with us.

Hmm. This is reminding what I miss now that I live in CA and far away from my family!!! :( I do still bring back my jars of fig preserves from my visits home, though! As an adult, I love my fig preserves on a grilled havarti sandwich!

@Cybercita: your Paros story made me crack up!