Mediterranean fruit which has absorbed the sun of a long hot summer is intensely sweet, perhaps not as juicy as usual, perhaps not as large and my Gozo kitchen is full of it at the moment. Piel de Sapo (toad skin) and netted cantaloupe melons, yellow and red plums and fresh purple figs from Turkey are to be enjoyed for the short season left to us.

I know I should be buying local fruit, with no air miles, but everyone has their weakness and mine is figs. They are expensive, but I eke them out with other ingredients and use them to flavour a main course, like today’s rabbit recipe. I mentioned stuffed saddle of rabbit in my last column and my recipe uses figs in the stuffing. Of course, any fruit could be substituted, even dried figs or apricots, but it sounds glamorous with fresh figs.

Being early summer fruit, nectarines and peaches have now spent a little too long in the cold store for my liking, which seems to give them a slightly woolly texture. If you find some good ones, try them in the today’s dessert recipe. My fruit crumble uses plums, but you can happily adapt the recipe to most other fruit, from apples and pears to figs. Cooked in red wine and honey, purple plums, figs and pears makes a majestic-looking crumble. I serve mine with a smoothly beaten mixture of ricotta and mascarpone.

Another combination I am fond of is sweet fruit with salty cheese. A salad of ripe melon and feta cheese on a bed of leaves with a lemon and olive oil dressing is beautifully refreshing, or try a combination of plums or figs with blue cheese in a salad.

And if you have the energy to bake, you will enjoy my fig and blue cheese flat bread, especially if you can buy fresh dough from your local baker.

Plum and almond crumble

(Serves 4 to 6)

500g plums, red or yellow
100ml orange juice
100g flour
50g unsalted butter
50g ground almonds
75g light muscovado or other brown sugar
40g flaked or chopped almonds

Simmer the plums in the orange juice for a few minutes. Sweeten if necessary. Spoon the fruit into individual ramekins or a larger ovenproof dish. Rub the butter and flour together, stir in the ground almonds and sugar, keeping the mixture loose.

Spoon the crumble over the fruit and scatter the almonds on top. Bake at 200˚C for 20 minutes. Serve hot or warm, with custard, cream or this sauce.

Fig and blue cheese flat bread

(Serves 4)

250g bread dough
1 large mild onion
Extra virgin olive oil
6-8 large ripe figs
200g blue cheese

Turn on to the dough a floured surface and knead for five to 10 minutes. Shape it into a ball and put it into a lightly-greased bowl. Cover loosely with lightly-oiled cling film and let it rise in a moderately warm place for about an hour until doubled in size. Turn out on to a floured worktop and punch out the air. Knead lightly again until smooth, then roll out and stretch the dough and place on as baking sheet or pizza stone.

While the dough is proving, make the topping. Peel and thinly slice the onion and gently fry in olive oil until soft and golden. Remove the stalk from the figs and cut into quarters or smaller wedges. Crumble the blue cheese. Brush the dough with extra virgin olive oil and arrange the onion, the figs and finally the blue cheese on top of the dough.

Bake in a preheated oven at 200˚C, Gas 6 for about 25 minutes or until the dough is crisp and baked through. Serve very hot.

Stuffed saddle of rabbit with fresh figs

(Serves 4)

2 saddles of rabbit (you can use the legs in another dish).
Extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, peeled and chopped
Rabbit liver and kidneys, chopped
3 or 4 ripe figs peeled and chopped
200g soft white breadcrumbs
1 grated peppered ġbejna (cheeslet)
Finely grated zest of a lemon
2 tbsp flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
Gozo salt
4 bay leaves
White wine

First prepare the saddles. Carefully remove the two fillets and flaps from each side of the backbone, scraping down from the backbone and over the ribs with a sharp knife. Place the two fillets from each saddle side by side, with the flaps overlapping, leaving a ‘channel’ to stuff. Slide seven or eight lengths of string under the meat, so that you will be able to tie the stuffed roll at intervals.

To make the stuffing heat the olive oil in a frying pan and fry the onion for a few minutes before adding the liver and kidneys. Fry these until no longer raw-looking and then add the chopped figs and cook for five minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool for 10 to 15 minutes. Mix in the breadcrumbs, cheese, lemon zest, parsley and a little seasoning and if the mixture seems very dry moisten it with white wine or mix in some lightly beaten egg, but not too much.

Spoon this into the ‘channel’ between the saddles, lightly pressing it to fill the space. Carefully bring the edges together and tie the stuffed fillets, pushing back any stuffing that escapes. Stuff the other two fillets in the same way.

Oil two sheets of parchment paper and place a stuffed saddle in each or use roasting bags if you have them. Add two bay leaves to each parcel, together with a modest splash of white wine. Seal the parcels, place on a baking tray and roast in a preheated oven at 180˚C for 35 to 40 minutes.

Remove from the heat and allow to rest before carving into slices and serving. The rabbit bones and trimmings can be used to make a stock in advance and then a sauce while the rabbit is roasting. I like to serve this with wilted spinach or carrot purée.

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