Andrew was wary when I bought figs last week. He said, “I don’t like that weird fig fruit spread that you and Johnna like. The seeds are weird.” I said, “You’ll like whatever I decide to make with these. I promise.”

And when I handed him a slice of warm Fig and Toasted Fennel Focaccia, he said, “Mmmm, this looks great!” But I could tell that he was suspicious. Then, he bit into it and raised his eyebrows in pleasant surprise. “Told you,” I thought, sing-songy in my head. His socks, however, were still on his feet, so I went into the fridge to find the saltiest thing I could find to compliment the slight sweetness of the bread. Kalamatas? No. Capers? Nope. Asiago cheese? Yikes, that’s been in there for a while. I need to pitch that. Ah ha. Chicken sausage. Yes, that will have to do. (I had looked at some pancetta yesterday while grocery shopping and decided against it. Now I wish I had picked it up.)

I sliced up the chicken sausage length-wise into about five or six pieces and grilled them in a hot pan. When the sausage was ready, I cut each piece in half and placed two smaller pieces next to each other on 2-inch x 2-inch squares of the flat bread. Then I brought this plate out for Andrew.

His response? “It’s like it’s my birthday, not yours! Thank you, thank you, thank you! This is amazing!” (It’s not actually my birthday until tomorrow.)

Again, I thought “I told you.”

Here’s the recipe. It’s somewhat of a hybrid between a recipe for Fig and Fennel Bread from Bon Appetit (which uses dried figs and untoasted fennel–is that a word? untoasted?) and Fresh Fig Focaccia from Cooking Light.