Fig and Port Cranberry Sauce

If you’ve been looking for a cranberry sauce recipe to make this year for Thanksgiving, look no further. This Fig and Port Cranberry Sauce is the perfect combination of tart and sweet with a hint of warmth from the port, rosemary, and balsamic vinegar.

Thanksgiving prep is in full swing around the house these days. Our new dining room table is getting delivered tomorrow, we placed the order for our turkeys, and we finally got the guest room all cleaned up and ready to go. As for the menu planning, I think I’ve finalized the meal portion of the day, but the desserts are all still up in the air.

I’m planning to make some recipes that I know and love, like this <a href="http://www.beantownbaker.com/2008/11/depths-of-fall-butternut-squash-pie.html"Depths of Fall Pie and these Pecan Pie Cookies. Hubby’s mom is making her famous Chocolate Mousse and her boyfriend is making his famous pumpkin pie. I’ll probably throw in a new recipe to round out the dessert table, but I haven’t had time to play around in the kitchen to figure out what just yet.

There were a few cranberry recipes I wanted to test out. I love this Classic Cranberry Sauce recipe and I plan to make it, but I also wanted to make something with a bit more pizzazz. A dressed up cranberry sauce. This was the first candidate on my list of recipes and I stopped testing recipes after one bite of this cranberry sauce. It’s sweet and tart with chunks of fig and cranberry dancing around together. The rosemary and port provide a subtle warmth that round out the sauce nicely. I left mine fairly chunky, but you could also puree it for a smoother consistency.

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Five Years Ago: Pumpkin Pie Dip
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Fig and Port Cranberry Sauce

This Fig and Port Cranberry Sauce is the perfect combination of tart and sweet with a hint of warmth from the port, rosemary, and balsamic vinegar.

Yield: ~3 1/2 cups

Ingredients:

1 2/3 cups ruby Port
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup brown sugar
8 dried black Mission figs, stemmed, chopped
1 6-inch-long sprig fresh rosemary
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 12-ounce bag fresh cranberries
3/4 cup sugar

Directions:

Combine all of the ingredients except the cranberries and white sugar in a medium saucepan. Bring to boil, stirring until brown sugar dissolves.

Reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove the rosemary stems. Stir in cranberries and sugar.

Cook on medium until cranberries burst, stirring occasionally. Once liquid has reduced slightly, remove from heat and cool. Refrigerate until ready to serve (may be made up to a week in advance).

Recipe from Bon Appetit