In short. Vincotto di fichi: ripe figs boiled to a mush, wrung out through a cloth, and the liquid reduced slowly for two or three hours until it is a dark syrup. Two ingredients — figs and water — and a great deal of patience.
This is the sweetener that Apulian baking ran on before sugar was cheap, and it is still what cartellate are drowned in at Christmas. Nothing is added to it: the sweetness is entirely the figs.
Ingredients
- ripe figs — the riper the better
- water
Method
1. Cooking the figs. Cut the figs into quarters, cover them with water and cook until they collapse into a mush and the volume has roughly halved.
2. Straining. Pour the still-boiling mixture into a length of closely woven cloth, close it like a bag and wring it hard to get as much liquid out as possible.
3. The long reduction. Pour the liquid into a stainless steel pot and cook it slowly for two or three hours, stirring often with a wooden spoon, until it thickens into syrup.
What it is used for. Poured over cartellate at Christmas, spooned into pastatelle, and — in the savoury kitchen — used a few drops at a time on roast meat and on cheese.
More Apulian sweets on the desserts page.
