Fruit and nut salami

By Trudy

Here’s our recipe for a scrumptious sweet ‘salami’ made from dried figs, dates, and apricots, and studded with chopped pistachio nuts. We call it Fruit and Nut Salami, and it’s not only one of our favorite sweet treats, we also use it in a variety of delicious savory ways too, including as part of a cheeseboard (it goes perfectly with shaved Parmesan or Spanish manchego cheese).

If you like, you can vary the basic recipe by adding different nuts such as toasted hazelnuts, almonds, pine nuts or walnuts (or a mixture) to the fruits. You could also add some finely chopped candied lemon or orange peel, but make sure to keep dried figs as a majority of the mixture, as it’s the fig paste that binds the other dried fruit and nuts together.

makes 2 logs

A scrumptious fruit 'salami' made from dried figs, dates, and apricots, and studded with chopped pistachio nuts.

12 oz (340g) dried figs — roughly chopped
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
4 oz (115g) dried dates — finely chopped
4 oz (115g) dried apricots — finely chopped
3 oz (85g) lightly toasted unsalted pistachio nuts — finely chopped

PLACE the figs, cinnamon and vanilla extract in a food processor and process to a sticky paste. IN a large bowl, mix the fig paste with the chopped dates, apricots and pistachio nuts until thoroughly combined. DIVIDE the mixture in half and place each portion along the center of a sheet of baking paper in a log shape. TIGHTLY roll up each 'salami' in the baking paper to form a neatly packed cylinder (you can also use a sushi rolling mat to make this even easier). SQUEEZE firmly to make sure each roll is tightly packed, and secure the ends by twisting them. REFRIGERATE for 2 hours before slicing into rounds.

This is one of the recipes from our cookbook The MediterrAsian Way.

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