To celebrate Bastille Day, I’m going full on French with a delicious savory and sweet Blue Cheese Fig Tart. Serve it for brunch, as an appetizer and/or as a snack and be ready for your tastebuds to start dancing the can-can!
French food makes me happy! There’s something so sophisticated and at the same time cozy about French cuisine that really appeals to my foodie self. Besides, nothing like a French tart or even just a French baguette with French cheese, for an awesome picnic by the Eiffel tower. Or, ya know, at your local park, if you – like me – are not as lucky as our fellow French friends. But just because a trip to Paris is not in my near future, it doesn’t mean I don’t get to enjoy all the French food. Especially because I received a bunch of French goodies to try from my friends at The French Ministry of Agriculture. Yep, we are partnering up once again to bring some much needed Frenchness to this blog! And because it’s finally fig season – and I’m extremely obsessed with figs – I though a delicious Blue Cheese Fig Tart was in order!
Since it’s summer and we all wanna be outside enjoying life instead of cooking in a hot kitchen, this blue cheese fig tart is made with store bought puff pastry. Easy peasy! No tart dough from scratch, unless you want to (and in that case you can find several recipes on the internet). All you gotta do is roll the puff pastry, top with all the yums and bake til perfection! Seriously, it doesn’t get easier than that. My idea for this fig tart was born as I was trying some of the cheese I received from The French Ministry of Agriculture. I am a big blue cheese lover and as soon as I tasted Ile de France‘s Saint Agur I knew it would go perfectly with the fresh figs I had just purchased at the farmer’s market. Their cheese is unique and intense, with a smooth buttery finish and rich in butterfat (double crème). It is absolutely creamy, like you wouldn’t believe it! The reason it’s so creamy it’s because, unlike most blue cheeses out there (which are typically made from goat milk), Saint Agur is made from cow milk from the Auvergne region of France. It literally melts in your mouth! This blue cheese is great not only paired with figs in this tart, but also in salads, over steak and potatoes or plain on a cheese board. Also perfect with pears, bacon, or served with a crusty fresh baguette.
We also received Ile de France‘s Saint André, which is their brie cheese, and I’m not even ashamed to say that it was inhaled in a matter of minutes and I couldn’t even use it in a recipe. No wonder it is known as “the heavenly cheese” as I literally felt like I was in heaven! This soft ripened triple cream cheese gets its salty tang from the ocean air that blows through Normandy’s coastal pastures. A lactic recipe with a rich “heart” that turns smooth and creamy as the cheese ages. This cheese will definitely be making several appearances at my cheese boards this holiday season!
I was also excited to get my hands on La Baleine sea salts. They are made from the combined action of the sea, sun and wind and are particularly environmentally friendly, from a biodiverse environment and sustainable methods. La Baleine was the first sea salt in the US market, more than 30 years ago, even before sea salt became “gourmet”. Once you start cooking with sea salt, you will never go back to table salt! It is purer (less processed) and way better for you. Just a little sprinkle over the figs in this tart and you seriously take this dish to a whole new level of yumminess!
Before going in the oven, your blue cheese fig tart will need a handful of pine nuts and some rosemary. Then it is baked until puffed, golden and very fragrant, and finally drizzled with honey right before serving. And this is where we get to my favorite part: the wine pairing!
Since this blue cheese fig tart plays with different flavor profiles, it can be served with either red, white or even bubbly wines. Blue cheese is usually best paired with a sweet white wine, like Riesling, but I personally enjoyed pairing it with red wine this time. The sweetness from the figs and the honey is already balancing the cheese saltiness/boldness, so a red like Marie de Beauregard Chinon 2015 from Saget la Perrière, with fruity aromas and perfectly blended with woody notes was the perfect call! If white wine is your jam, Saget la Perrière also has the Marie de Beauregard Vouvray 2015 which is a Chenin Blanc. On the nose, mineral expression of chalk and flint followed by a burst of ripe pear, acacia honey, candied fruits and lemon. The palate has a beautiful balance of freshness and sweetness with a silky texture.
And because one can never get enough of French wine, once you are done tasting those, I highly suggest you move on to the wines from Les Vins Georges Duboeuf, which is a family-owned winery in the heart of the Beaujolais region of France. The George Duboeuf Beaujolais-Villages 2015 is a light-bodied red wine that’s similar in taste to Pinot Noir. It is made from 100% Gamay and opens with notes of ripe strawberry and black currant that almost jump out of the glass. On the palate, it has notes of bright juicy cherries and raspberries, a smooth velvety mouth feel and a touch of cinnamon on the finish. It goes amazing with some cheese and charcuterie, burgers, grilled chicken or roast salmon. As for their white, you should try the Georges Duboeuf Pouilly-Fuissé 2015, which is made from 100% Chardonnay. Aromas of roasted almonds, peach and pear on the nose lead to a wine that’s beautifully structured with flinty minerality and a long lasting finish. Very food-friendly but also great to enjoy on its own. I apologize if I got too wine-nerd (winerd?) for a second here. But you guys know how much I enjoy talking about wine, especially when paired with food! Which always reminds me that I gotta take a sommelier class someday… But for now, I get to only pretend I know what I’m talking about while enjoying sips of wine and bites of tart in anticipation for Bastille Day, one of my favorite foodie holidays of the year! ? If you’re not familiar, Bastille Day is celebrated on July 14 each year. This year it falls on a Friday, so as soon as Tim gets home from work, we are going picnicking French style, and there will certainly be a blue cheese tart involved as well as lots of French cheese, bread and wine. Oh, I can’t wait!
