If I don't dedicate this post to Flopsy he'll kill me, so...for Flopsy

Okay, I promise this will be the last Parma ham/goat's cheese/fig post for a while, but as I mentioned in my previous post, it's leftovers time again. So this evening I did some fridge-diving and came up with the following:

a bagel
a fig (yes, I've been eating a lot of these recently, there are too many good ones at the local market)
goat's cheese (see 'fig')
Parma ham (see 'goat's cheese' and 'fig')
ricotta
mixed leaves

...these things were made for eachother!

The thing about bagels is that they don't seem quite right when there's no cream cheese. You try finding cream cheese in France. I saw it once, in a bagel shop over in the 6th, in pots that you could buy and take home. The bagel shop near me doesn't sell it though which is too bad because I'm not getting in the metro and schlepping over to the 6th in this heat (despite yesterday's dreams of Autumn, today is a very unacceptable 29°C) in the name of a sandwich. And anyway, newly bought cream cheese for the occasion would not count as leftovers so what I've got will have to do.

Here goes then, with how I assembled this little gem:

Cut the bagel in half and toast.

Spread ricotta on each slice. Top with goat's cheese and put under the grill for a few minutes until the cheese has melted and bubbled a little.

In the mean time, tear up the Parma ham, slice up the fig and prepare a little honey mustard (easy enough, honey and mustard in equal quantities, stir around and there you have it!)

Place the Parma Ham over the cheese on one slice, place the fig on top of that and then cover with as much honey mustard as pleases you.

Top with a few mixed leaves and sandwich it all up with the other bagel slice. It's not cream cheese, but it's good.

Goat's Cheese, Parma Ham and Fig Toasts

Sometimes the things left over from the weekend that need using up make the best dinners! This is what I made and promptly devoured this evening. The first half I really enjoyed. The second half? Well, I decided to drizzle a little honey over the top and put it back in the oven for a few minutes and I REALLY enjoyed it.

(Serves 2 as a main course or 4 as a starter)

1 small pre-cooked oven baguette (or a fresh one would work too I suppose, but this is what I had to hand)
A good few dollops of homemade tomato sauce
2 large, ripe figs, sliced into 6
8 decent slices of goat's cheese
2 large slices of Parma Ham, cut in half

Heat the baguette at around 220°C (or follow instructions on a packaged oven baguette) until warm and slightly crunchy on the outside. Remove from the oven and cut in half. Cut these halves in half again lengthways.

On each slice, spread three or four teaspoons of the tomato sauce and cover with half a slice of Parma Ham.

Lay three slices of fig over the Parma Ham and then two slices of goat's cheese on top of that.

Put in the oven for ten minutes at 220°C or until goat's cheese is melted and golden.


For something really yummy, drizzle a little runny honey over the toasts once removed from the oven. Put them back in for a few more minutes, keeping an eye on them to make sure the honey doesn't burn. Remove, enjoy!