Fig Tagine

Fig tagine is a seasonal Moroccan dish, made in late summer and early autumn when fresh figs are abundant. Morocco grows excellent figs, particularly in the Taounate and Fes regions, and the fruit appears in both sweet and savory dishes. In the tagine, fresh figs are halved and laid cut-side down in the sauce, where they slowly collapse and dissolve, their sugars and seeds thickening the broth. Dried figs can be used when fresh are unavailable, soaked first like prunes or raisins. The dish belongs to the sweet-savory tagine family, but figs give it a more complex, earthier sweetness than the raisin or prune versions.

The lamb is tender and the sauce is thick with dissolved figs, darkly sweet and faintly seedy; cinnamon and honey intensify the fruit. Over couscous, the sweet and savory are inseparable.

Fresh figs behave differently from dried fruit in a tagine. Dried fruit (prunes, raisins) holds its shape and plumps up; fresh figs collapse and dissolve, their cell walls breaking down completely and their seeds dispersing through the sauce as a natural thickener. This is why a fig tagine has a more homogeneous, jam-like consistency than a prune tagine, where the fruit stays in distinct pieces. The pectin in the figs also helps set the sauce, giving it a glossy sheen. Honey is added late, as in all Moroccan sweet-savory tagines, to prevent burning.