Agrodolce. Let that word roll off your tongue a few times. It is an Italian word meaning sour/sweet and is pronounced agro-doltchay. Many foods can be agrodolce but it was figs that stole my heart recently in New York City at Mario Batali's wildly fun Otto restaurant. Figs agrodolce are one of a few stellar side dishes on offer at Otto, soft, succulent and oozing with a honey and balsamic vinegar infusion. Plumped up by a soft simmer in a sour/sweet bath, the net effect is fruit that is both jammy and savoury, a winning, memorable play on flavours that is immediately addictive.

Of course I came home and started my own agrodolce experiments. Figs and rosemary are something I dream about, so that became the starting point for my little figgy stew, along with honey and balsamic vinegar and a splash of water. Salt and pepper enhance the building of flavours. In a pot cover some good dried figs with a mixture roughly in equal parts - honey, balsamic vinegar and water - add in chopped fresh rosemary, a bay leaf and salt and pepper to taste - and simmer, covered, until your figs are very soft but not mushy and your agrodolce sauce is thick and syrupy. If your figs are cooked but your sauce feels too loose, you may need to boil off some of the extraneous liquid at this point. Just continue simmering the figs with the lid off the pot until the desired syrup-stage is achieved. Cool these babies down a bit and serve up with roasted meats or a platter of cheeses. Cooking time will vary depending on how dry the figs are. A guesstimate is roughly one hour to render dried figs into fat softness.

I need to confess that my recipe is an approximation of the delectible dish I ate in New York. If you want agrodolce advise from the man himself, Mario Batali, here is a recipe of his for onions agrodolce, from which you can extrapolate a figgy treatment if you choose to.

Sweet and Sour Onions---Cipolline Agrodolce from http://www.cookingchanneltv.com

4 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil; 2 pounds small white cipolline onions; 1/3 cup sugar; 1 cup white wine vinegar; 1 cup water; Salt and pepper to taste

In a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine all ingredients, cover, and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook 40 minutes, shaking the pan occasionally so that the onions don't stick to the bottom of the pan. The onions should be easily penetrated with a paring knife but should not be falling apart.

Remove the lid and continue to cook until the liquid has evaporated and the onions are glossy and dark brown, taking care not to burn. Remove from heat and serve.

Fruit and vegetables have a way of speaking to me, inspiring me to play around with them and use them in unusual ways, from sweet to savoury, with agrodolce being an intriguing melding of disparate themes. It's OK to play with your food! Have more fun playing with flavours with these books:

It is easy to be seduced by stuffed vine leaves, dolmades, cute little cylanders of savoury rice encased in a briny grape vine leaf, slowly simmered until tender in a fragrant broth. I order them in Middle Eastern restaurants, buy them in ethnic stores and have long thought that making them would be a large and cumbersome project. Not!

Making dolmades does require almost assembly-line organization, though, to ensure the various steps are completed efficiently. I drained and rinsed a whole jar of grape vine leaves and laid them out flat across my entire kitchen island. Cooked up some rice, added in some chopped fresh herbs, and metered out equal mounds onto each awaiting leaf. Then the rolling begins. It goes quickly once all the filling is in place. Each little stuffed log gets nestled into a large pan, tightly and firmly so as to stay intact. Add some fresh lemon juice, water and a couple of bay leaves, and let these babies cook for about an hour. The result? Tender, lemon-scented snacks or appetizers, nice warm, but significantly better the next day chilled overnight in the fridge. They keep for a few days and lend themselves to nibbling out of hand. They are a welcome addition to a meze table of assorted Middle Eastern vegetables and marinated salads, pita bread, olives and cheeses.

Dolmades (Stuffed Grape Vine Leaves) recipe adapted from www.saveur.com

5 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil, divided; 1 clove garlic, minced; 1⁄2 medium onion, minced; 1⁄2 cup basmati rice; 1/2 tomato, cut into small dice; 1⁄2 tsp. ground cumin; 1⁄4 cup minced fresh dill; 1⁄4 cup minced fresh parsley; 3⁄4 tsp. dried mint or 2 tbsp. minced fresh mint; 1/8 cup toasted pine nuts; 34 grape leaves in brine, drained and very well rinsed; 1⁄4 cup fresh lemon juice; 1/4 tsp. salt; 1 bay leaf.

Heat 2 tbsp. oil in a 12" skillet over medium-high heat. Add garlic and onions and cook until soft, 3 – 4 minutes. Add rice. Toast for 3 minutes, stirring. Add cumin, tomato and 1+1⁄2 cups water. Season with salt and pepper. Boil and then reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer, uncovered, until rice has absorbed water, 12 – 15 minutes. Do not cover the rice as it will become mushy. The water needs to evaporate. Stir in pine nuts along with dill, parsley, and mint. Let cool slightly.

Coat bottom of a 3 - litre saucepan with remaining 3 tbsp. oil and 3 tbsp. water. Cover with 4 grape leaves, using some of the torn ones in the jar. Set remaining grape leaves on a work surface, vein side up. Working with one leaf at a time, flatten leaf and place about 1+1⁄2 tsp. rice mixture in center. Fold bottom of leaf over filling, fold in sides, and roll into tight cylinder. Transfer, seam side down, to pot. Repeat. Nestle the stuffed vine leaves in tightly together so that they do not unravel as they cook. Add lemon juice, salt, bay leaf and 3⁄4 cup water to pot. Cover grape leaves with a dinner plate placed upside down over them to keep them submerged and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until the vine leaves are tender, about 1 hour. Keep the water level constant throughout the cooking time by periodically adding some more when needed. Some people like to serve these warm but I find them much better the next day, after a thorough chill in the fridge. Makes about 30.

A 1 - litre jar of Krinos brand grape vine leaves has just over 60 leaves in it, so if you double the recipe you can use the whole jar. It is OK to lay a few layers of stuffed vine leaves in a large pan as long as you adjust the amount of liquid and keep them covered.

I have been smitten with dolmades for close to 30 years now, first tasting them at my teenage boyfriend's house where his Egyptian-Jewish mother served what seemed like the most unusual and exotic Sephardic dishes, foods that Jews from the Middle East enjoyed, delicacies completely unfamiliar to my Ashkenazi Jewish family from eastern Europe. It has taken me this long to make dolmades myself. I see now that my hesitation was a mistake, as they are fun and easy to put together, given one's proclivity for this sort of activity. If you lean towards a little bit of stuffing and rolling in the kitchen, don't make the same mistake I made with dolmades. Just do it!

More Sephardic and Middle Eastern delights await you here:

It’s harvest time and the local farmers markets and gardens are bursting with fresh produce. It’s also time for our second annual celebration of sustenance: Food is Life!

We’re hosting two days of programs that will tantalize your taste buds, inspire your cooking, clean up your diet and plug you into the local food scene here in Calgary.

On Saturday September 25 John Gilchrist will dish on the latest food trends on the plate in Calgary. On Sunday September 26 Slow Food Calgary will challenge you to a produce taste test. Equally appetizing programs from eight other community experts flesh out each day. Don’t miss it!

Sign up today by clicking here!

SATURDAY September 25

Thriving on Raw Food

Try a green smoothie and discover why the raw food trend is healthy and tasty. Presented by Diana Stoevelaar of Awesome Rawsome Lifestyle.
10:00 - 11:00 a.m.

Baking for Special Diets

Discover tips and tricks to baking for celiacs, diabetics and vegetarians with Brian Hinton from Lakeview Bakery.
11:00 a.m. -12:00 p.m.

What's New with Food

Join Calgary food writer John Gilchrist for a lively talk about food trends from locally grown cherries to mortadella cured in a pig's head.
1:00 - 2:00 p.m.

Nutrition for Special Diets

Join Community Natural Foods to learn about eating a healthy diet as a vegetarian, vegan, or celiac.
2:00 - 3:00 p.m.

Backyard Beekeeping

Find out what all the buzz is on beekeeping in urban backyards. Presented by Eliese Watson of Apiaries and Bees for Communities.
3:00 - 4:00 p.m.

SUNDAY September 26

Gardening in Calgary

Calgary's unique climate creates original problems and solutions for vegetable gardeners. Presented by the Calgary Horticultural Society.
10:00 - 11:00 a.m.

Gardening in Small Spaces

Make the most of your balcony or patio with tips and tricks for vegetable micro-gardening. Presented by the Calgary Horticultural Society.
11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

A New SPIN on Farming

Discover how Small Plot Intensive (SPIN) Farming brings together local food and urban renewal. Presented by Leaf & Lyre Urban Farms.
1:00 - 2:00 p.m.

Only the Best-Supporting Local Farms

Kris Vester of Blue Mountain Biodynamic Farms along with other local farmers talk about the opportunities and challenges of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in Alberta.
2:00 - 3:00 p.m.

Slow Food: Taste the Difference

Let your taste buds be the judge - locally grown or the rest? Explore the world of Slow Food.
3:00 - 4:00 p.m.

Calgarians are embracing the adage to eat local by returning to their roots, and planting both individual backyard gardens and community gardens with gusto. The next logical step, once you have all that fresh produce, is to spend some time in the kitchen preserving the fruits of your harvest for the winter ahead.

What’s the first thing you think of when I say “canning, pickling and drying”? According to author Sherri Brooks Vinton, the first two reactions are usually a fear of hard work and a fear of killing someone. In her new book, Put ‘em Up! A Comprehensive Home Preserving Guide for the Creative Cook from Drying and Freezing to Canning and Picking, Vinton writes:

“Why on earth would you do that?” That’s what people want to know when they see me moving through the hardware store balancing five cases of Mason jars on my way to the cash register. It’s often followed by “Aren’t you afraid you’ll kill someone?” I guess these questions pretty much sum up the most widely held beliefs about home food preservation: 1) that it’s hugely time-consuming and not worth the effort, and 2) that it’s mysterious, difficult, and wickedly dangerous. Well, I say, not true and not true. Home food preservation is simple and delicious, and no one was harmed in the marking of this book.”

Put ‘em up! Is an entertaining, colourful, and informative book with instructions on how to preserve everything from apples to zucchini, along with mouth-watering recipes. She does make preserving food sound easy. Beet Relish? No problem! Dilly Beans? I could make them in my sleep! If I could just get off the couch…