Port-Glazed Figs

This is the kind of grown-up dessert that looks impressive but asks almost nothing of you, fresh figs gently poached in a bath of port and creme de cassis.

The figs simmer just long enough to soften and drink up the wine, then come out while the liquid keeps cooking. Reducing that port and cassis down to about a cup transforms it into a glossy, intensely flavored syrup, sweet, deep, and faintly berry-like from the cassis.

Spooned over cool vanilla frozen yogurt, the warm-meets-cold contrast is the whole appeal, and because it leans on frozen yogurt rather than ice cream, it stays surprisingly light.

It’s a five-minute-prep dessert that tastes like something off a restaurant menu, ideal for late summer when fresh figs are at their best.

Chef Tips

• Use ripe but firm figs so they soften without falling apart during the simmer.
• Be patient reducing the wine; cook it down until syrupy and reduced to about a cup, as the recipe says, for the deepest flavor.
• Let the syrup cool to room temperature before serving so it thickens and clings.

Variations

• Serve over vanilla ice cream, mascarpone, or thick Greek yogurt instead of frozen yogurt.
• Add a strip of orange zest or a cinnamon stick to the poaching wine.
• Spoon the figs and syrup over pound cake or alongside a cheese plate.