Persimmon, Goat Cheese & Thyme Tartine

Remember my Radish & Butter open faced sandwich ramblings? Insert that here, but with two kinds of persimmons, goat cheese and thyme.

Or if you’re in the mood for a bit of information read on — because not only am I a geek at heart but until a few months back, when a box of glowing orange fruit showed up at my door, I’d never eaten a persimmon. (And now that I have I’m a bit in love. Really.)

I’d heard the warnings about persimmons, stories of astringent fruit that when not yet ripe is slightly worse than eating a box of chalk then licking a cat — and as every persimmon I’d ever seen in a grocery store was as hard as a rock I simply wasn’t willing to risk my tastebuds.

The aforementioned box however included two different types of persimmons…

One that was perfectly round, sitting proudly on its bottom and as firm as an apple. And another that was almost heart shaped, as soft as a water balloon and able to pose only on its side like a bored Botticelli model.

It turns out the round one is meant to be eaten hard and is called a sweet persimmon (or a fuyu so google tells me). It’s more like a pear in the shape of a squat tomato, and while still nice when soft and extra-ripe I preferred it firm.

The other one though is the tricky beast that gives persimmons a bad name. When unripe and firm it’s awful but when ripe — as the delivered gems were, luckily — the flesh is scoopable, almost jelly-like and beautifully sweet.

As for the skin I had to ask Instagram what to do with it — the general consensus was eat it on the firm ones and scoop the flesh out of the soft ones.

I decided to put both on toasted sourdough with tangy goat cheese and herbal thyme, because apparently all I can manage these days is stuff on toast. C’est la vie.