Carciofi alla Romana
braised Roman-style artichokes with olive oil and herb mixture recipe 🌱
Instructions on how to deal with artichokes:
Fill a bowl with cold water, squeeze in juice from 1 lemon, and put both squeezed halves of the lemon in the water too. Acidulated water prevents artichokes from turning brown.
Slice the other lemon in half and save for later (this is a potential remedy in case they start to brown during the preparation - if that happens, you need to quickly rub the artichoke hearts and stems with the lemon). Keep an eye on the state of the artichoke while trimming - if it gets darker, use the lemon half, perform some rubbing action, and then resume trimming.
First, peel off the outer leaves with your hands until you get to the thinner, softer and more yellow leaves (the outer leaves are much darker).
I find it easier to trim artichokes over a bin bag so there’s less cleaning to do later. Use gloves if you don’t want your hands to get dirty.
Using a serrated knife slice off the top (around 3 cm).
Cut off the bottom part of the stem and set aside.
Trim both the upper and the bottom parts:
Start with the bottom. Remove/peel the dark green side leaving the white core (as shown below). I recommend using a paring knife for this task. When finished, dunk the stem in a lemon bath.
When you trim the upper part, trim the short stem first (in the same way as the bottom part, by removing the outer layer), rub it with lemon, and then, cut away any dark green irregularities around the heart.
Scrape out the chokes - the hairy central structures in each artichoke. The inside fibre is inedible and should be discarded. Use a teaspoon or a melon baller to remove it.
When you get rid of the choke, trim the last bits of the artichoke heart with a paring knife, give it a quick rinse under cold water and place the clean heart in lemon water.
Remember to drop trimmed artichokes immediately into the lemony bath to prevent discolourisation.
For the artichokes to be fully submerged, place a paper towel on top by pressing it gently into a bowl to create a layer that will keep the vegetables under water.
Serves: 3 (2 artichokes per person)
Ingredients:
6 whole artichokes (prepped as above) - I used artichokes from the Puglia region, but I recommend buying round Romanesco artichokes
2 lemons
water (for lemon bath)
Herb stuffing:
8 mentuccia stalks (Roman mint)
4 flat parsley stalks
3 garlic cloves
extra virgin olive oil
sea salt
black pepper
Cooking:
extra virgin olive oil
water
black pepper
sea salt
Method:
Artichokes
Follow the instructions above to clean them.
Herb stuffing
Finely chop the mentuccia and parsley. Mince the garlic. Mentuccia tastes a bit different than mint - if it isn’t available, substitute it with the same amount of a 50/50 mix of fresh oregano and mint. Combine everything in a bowl with olive oil, salt and freshly ground black pepper, stir to combine, and set aside.
Rubbing and cooking prepped artichokes:
Rub artichokes with the herb mixture in between each leave, sides and stem generously.
Layer a heavy-bottomed pan with plenty of olive oil and bring to medium heat. Assemble artichokes in the pan and season them with more salt and black pepper. Add some water when the olive oil starts to sizzle (add enough liquid so that the hearts are fully covered). Bring the artichokes to a boil, lower the heat, cover with wet paper (I used the paper I normally use for bread packaging) to create steam, put a lid on, and cook gently for around 20 to 30 minutes.
The braised artichokes are pretty versatile. Serve them cold or warm - as a side dish, in a salad, or on its own.
