Fici Farsi

Roman dried figs stuffed with spiced almond paste, after Apicius

Origin: Ancient Rome

From the journey of Fig.

Apicius, the Roman culinary writer whose collection De Re Coquinaria (On the Subject of Cooking) was compiled in the late 4th or early 5th century CE from earlier sources, includes a recipe for fici farsi (stuffed figs) among his preparations for preserved and confected fruits. The recipe is brief even by the standards of Roman culinary writing: dry the figs, stuff them with a mixture of ground nuts, pepper, anise, and salt, close them up again, and roast or dry them in the oven. The stuffed fig appears in multiple Roman sources as a luxury confection: dense, shelf-stable, intensely sweet from the dried fig, with the savoury kick of pepper and the anise note that Romans used as both flavouring and digestive aid. This recipe follows the Apician form closely while giving it a little more structure than the ancient text provides: almonds (the nut most commonly associated with this preparation by food historians of Rome), honey, fennel seeds, and black pepper, stuffed into good dried figs and dried briefly in a low oven to firm and concentrate them. They keep for weeks and improve with a day of resting.

Ingredients

Figs

  • 20 large good-quality dried figs (Calimyrna, Smyrna, or Turkish dried figs; not the hard, compressed variety)

Filling

  • 100 g blanched almonds, finely ground (or pulsed to a coarse meal in a food processor)
  • 1.5 tbsp good dark honey
  • 0.5 tsp freshly ground black pepper
  • 0.5 tsp fennel seeds, lightly crushed in a mortar
  • 0.25 tsp fine salt

To serve

  • 20 fresh bay leaves or dried fig leaves, to wrap (optional, for presentation)

Method

  1. Heat the oven to 120°C (100°C fan). Line a baking tray with baking parchment.
  2. In a small bowl, combine the ground almonds, honey, black pepper, crushed fennel seeds, and salt. Mix thoroughly into a stiff, homogeneous paste. If the paste is too dry to hold together, add a few drops of warm water.
  3. Using a small knife or your thumbnail, slit each dried fig from the base (not the stem end) and open it gently without tearing the sides apart entirely. You need a pocket large enough to hold a small amount of filling.
  4. Roll a small piece of the almond paste (about a teaspoon's worth) into an oval and press it firmly into the cavity of each fig. Gently press the fig closed around the filling.
  5. Arrange the stuffed figs, stem-side up, on the prepared baking tray. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes until the figs are slightly dried and firm on the outside but not hardened.
  6. Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely on the tray. If using bay or fig leaves, wrap each cooled fig in a leaf and arrange on a serving platter.
  7. Allow to rest overnight before serving. Store in an airtight container; the stuffed figs keep for up to three weeks at room temperature.

Notes

The original Apician text is laconic even by Roman standards, and food historians have reconstructed several versions of this recipe. This version follows the interpretation favoured by Giacomo Castelvetro, Sally Grainger, and other scholars of Roman cookery who identify almonds as the principal nut and fennel (or anise) as the characteristic spice. For a richer version, press a whole roasted almond into the centre of the paste before stuffing. The bay leaves are both decorative and practical: they impart a very faint herbal note to the surface of the fig and help prevent the figs from sticking to one another during storage.

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