This caramelized onion, gruyere and fig crostini combines two fall staples – fresh figs and French onion soup – into an appetizer that perfectly balances sweet and savory.
It’s still fig season! Last week I talked about the fig tree in my yard and how I’m cooking up any and every fig recipe I can think of, and posted a recipe for Lemon Ricotta Fig Cake (which was amaaaaaaazing and you should most definitely make). This week, I’m continuing my fig trend, because I still have so many figs on my tree, even if I have given up the ones on the taller branches to the birds (there’s way more figs than I and my family/friend could ever eat, so let them have some). Since I used figs in a sweet dessert last week, I wanted to try my hand at using them in a savory way and came up with this caramelized onion, gruyere and fig crostini. It is every bit as sweet-salty-and-savory as it sounds, and a super simple appetizer that’s sure to impress anybody.
FIG CROSTINI FOR FALL
While figs may feel like one of those light-and-bright summertime ingredients, to me they most definitely scream fall. And that’s because the early fall is when most of the figs on my tree ripen. So I wanted to use them in a recipe that also screamed fall, and decided to take some inspiration from French onion soup. As the weather gets colder, my body starts craving soup over anything else. A few years ago I made this classic French onion soup (and posted the recipe along with some photos of Brooklyn’s famous Green-Wood Cemetery, because what’s more fall than soup and spooky stuff?). So I pulled inspiration from that fall classic, combining the two staples of French onion soup – slowly and deeply caramelized onions and gruyere cheese – with figs.
The result is a crostini that’s all at once sweet and savory, and undeniably delicious. And while super easy to make, there are a couple of things that just set this crostini over the edge from good to incredibly delicious. One is the caramelizing of the onion. Much like for a French onion soup, I caramelized these onions low and slow, until deeply golden in color. This brings out their natural sweetness – which plays well with the sweet figs – but also releases a trademark slow-cooked savoriness. The other key to this crostini is to top those fresh figs with a little bit of honey before throwing the crostini in the oven. It amps up the sweetness a bit more, and also becomes slightly bitter in the oven, offsetting said sweetness. And when you pair all that with ultra salty gruyere cheese, it’s a combination too delicious to resist.
AN EASY APPETIZER
While the taste of these caramelized onion, gruyere and fig crostini is really what should convince you to make them, the fact that they’re an incredibly easy and quick appetizer certainly doesn’t hurt. I made them last weekend for our cousins board game night (see below for a super cute picture of all of us), and they were a big hit. But they were also perfect because they freed me up to enjoy time with my family. The most time consuming thing about making these crostini is caramelizing the onion; it takes about 45 minutes to do that. But I simply caramelized them the night before (leaving them on the stove while I was doing other things and stirring them occasionally), so when it came time to make the crostini it was as easy as layering some fresh bread with those, gruyere, figs and a drizzle of honey, and baking.
Caramelized Onion, Gruyere and Fig Crosini
Ingredients
- 1 demi baguette, or other fresh bread
- 2 large onions
- 12 oz gruyere cheese, shredded
- 8-10 figs, sliced 1/4 inch thick
- honey for drizzling
- olive oil
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Heat oven to 425.
- Heat a small pot or saute pan over low heat with a good drizzle of olive oil. Slice the onion in half and peel, then slice into thin half-rings. Saute the onion low and slow, seasoning with salt and pepper. Cooking until deeply caramelized, stirring occasionally, about 45 minutes. If the onions begin to get too dark in certain places, add a bit of water to the pan.
- Slice the demi baquette the long ways down the middle to open it up. Spread each half with caramelized onions, shredded gruyere cheese, and top with fig slices. Drizzle the fig slices with a bit of honey.
- Bake until cheese is melty and browned and figs are slightly caramelized, 10-15 minutes. Allow to cool slightly, then slice into 2-3 inch pieces and serve.
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