Getting figgy with mascarpone

August through September brings a harvest of local figs to Georgia, from Alma and Celeste to Brown Turkey. As a young girl, I learned to can with my mother and grandmother. We would put up figs for preserves right around the time school started.

South Georgia offers a perfect climate for most varieties that grow here, but if you live in the Atlanta area, you’ll most likely pick up Celeste, or possibly Brown Turkey, varieties from your local farm stand. The beautiful purple figs seen in most supermarkets are Mission Figs, and are farmed in California. Kadota figs have become a part of the local landscape due mostly to backyard plantings that yield fruit within a few years. Whatever the fig, they are delicious — an ancient fruit of the Old World that is prevalent in many Western and Middle Eastern cuisines.

In Italy, figs are a popular addition to everything from antipasti to custard tarts, and can be found in many northern regions of the country in sweet jams to the south in Calabria, where they are dried. Since figs and polenta are mainstays of Lombardy (as is mascarpone), this easy polenta begs for figs, though its sweetness is a twist on the traditional.

If you’ve never tasted mascarpone before, you’re in for a treat — it’s the same tangy-sweet Italian cream cheese you may have tasted in tiramisu. Polenta? Think grits, from Italy. Because this Italian cornmeal import has become so popular in the U.S., it’s easy to find quick-cooking polenta at the grocery store. (I use Arrowhead Mills cornmeal, found at Whole Foods.) As for the figs — get them quick! Late-season figs are still available at Your Dekalb Farmers Market, and ubiquitous local Brown Turkey figs are still ripening if you’re lucky enough to have a tree or a neighbor willing to share.