Glazed fig and gorgonzola tartlets

 

I made these once with the addition of cooked chopped bacon, shown above, which wasn't a bad choice, but they really don't need it so I usually opt for not including it since it makes it more accessible to more dietary restrictions. I've used what ever variety of blueish cheese I have on hand at the time and it seems to work fine.

 Fig and gorgonzola mini tarts

Adapted from Rachael Ray magazine, Sept. 2016; can no longer find the recipe online to link to, as there seems to have been some change to how recipes from the magazine are stored.

Ingredients
½ cup chopped dried black Mission figs
¾ cup ruby port (or a deep Merlot could work)
1 sprig fresh thyme plus more for garnish
1 (1.9-ounce) box frozen mini phyllo shells
2 ½ ounces Gorgonzola or blue cheese, crumbled

Method
Combine figs, port and thyme sprig in small sauce pan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and cook until liquid has mostly evaporated and the figs are coated, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from heat. Remove and discard thyme sprig. (At this point you can let the mixture sit at room temperature for a bit before finishing final assembly.)

Preheat oven to 350. Put phyllo shells on a rimmed baking sheet. Divide crumbled cheese among shells. Top with glazed figs. Sprinkle with thyme leaves. Bake until heated through, about 6 to 8 minutes.

Rating: Not bad. Hard to go too far wrong with that flavor combo, and they get high marks for looks-to effort-ratio. They come together really quickly and don't result in a lot of dishes, but they look like you tried. They're fine warm or at room temperature. I'm sure they'd be better if you made your own phyllo shells, but then you wouldn't have the cool little plastic container they came in, which is just fun.