‘Artichokes’ is the topic of Richard Cornish’s regular column. (September 21, Brain Food in The Age). His commentary has certainly provided me with an excess amount of food for thought – artichokes are one of my very favourite vegetables and I have written many recipes for artichokes on my blog.
I have included some recipes in this post and more can be found on my blog.
In Italian artichokes are called carciofi, in Sicilian they are cacocciuli.
As Richard says, artichokes are thought to have originated from Sicily, and therefore Sicilians have had plenty of time to appreciate their versatility and have come up with some excellent recipes for artichokes cooked in many interesting ways.
This is not to say that the other regions of Italy don’t have their own local recipes for artichokes, but Sicilians seem to have the lot.
Versitility:
Artichokes in Italy are eaten as appetizers, contorni (sides), first and second courses, and stand-alone dishes.
Artichokes can be stuffed with a wide variety of fillings, fried whole or sliced, and crumbed before being fried, sautéed, boiled, baked, braised and stewed, roasted in ashes, used in frittate (plural of frittata), pasta and risotti (plural of risotto).
When they are young, they are sliced thinly and eaten raw in salads. They are canned commercially and, at the end of plant’s life, the last of the artichokes that will never mature, but will stay small and underdeveloped, are conserved, mostly in olive oil. When they are old, they are stripped of all the leaves and the bases are eaten.
You may be familiar with Cynar, one of the many Italian bitter, alcoholic drinks (of the Amaro variety) and made predominantly with artichokes. Below is some information.
Recipes:
CARCIOFINI SOTT’ OLIO (Preserved artichokes in oil)
It is spring in Australia now and the very best time to celebrate artichokes when they can be combined with other spring produce such as broad beans, peas, asparagus and potatoes.
A couple of recipes in my blog make a special feature of spring flavours:
A QUICK PASTA DISH for Spring: asparagus, artichokes, peas
CARCIOFI IMBOTTITI (Stuffed artichokes)
ASPARAGUS and ARTICHOKES PASTA ALLA FAVORITA (Pasta with artichokes, broad beans, peas alla favorita)
FRITTEDDA (A sauté of spring vegetables)
Different varieties of artichokes are also available in autumn, but somehow pairing them with spring seasonal produce, deserves extra applause.
CARCIOFI (Artichokes and how to clean them and prepare them for cooking)
Cynarin
In his Brain Food column about artichokes Richard says that artichokes contain a compound called cynarin which inhibits your tongue’s ability to detect sweetness. You don’t notice it until you have a bite or a drink of something else: the cynarin gets washed off the tongue, and suddenly, your brain tells you that what you have in your mouth is sweet, even when it is not!
Hence Cynar, one of the many Italian bitter alcoholic drinks (of the amaro variety) and made predominantly with artichokes. Cynar is classed as a digestive and it is said to have stomach-soothing qualities and cleansing and restorative properties for the liver. It can be drunk as an apéritif or after dinner drink.
BITTER GREENS and AMARI (Aperitivi and Digestivi)
Richard mentions how Richard Purdue, executive chef at Margaret in Sydney’s Double Bay, beams when the word artichoke is mentioned. ‘‘One of my favourite dishes is one I picked up in Sicily, where the artichokes are cooked in a kind of caponata – tomatoes, celery, pine nuts, currants, red wine and sugar.’’ So to finish off here is a recipe adapted from my book, Sicilian Seafood Cooking for a caponata made with artichokes.
In recipe in my book, Sicilian Seafood Cooking, I suggest using 9 -10 artichokes and it is intended for 6 -8 people.
Caponata di Carciofi (Artichoke Caponata) can only be made with young artichokes. It is also worth noting that you will need to remove the outer leaves and only use the tender centre, therefore reducing the amount of artichokes significantly.
CAPUNATA DI CARCIOFFULI – Caponata Di Carciofi (Artichoke caponata)
Sauté each of the vegetable ingredients separately as is the traditional method of making caponata (as in a well-made, French dish Ratatouille). Frying the vegetables together does save time, but the colours and the flavours will not be as distinct. However, I have provided this method as a variation (see bottom of this recipe).
Remove the outer, tougher leaves of the artichokes by bending them back and snapping them off the base until you come to the softer, paler leaves.
- Prepare artichokes for sautéing. The artichokes need to be sliced thinly and vertically into bite size pieces. Keep them in acidulated water as you work. The cleaned stalk is one of my favourite parts of the artichoke and will add flavour to the caponata. Trim the stalk with a small sharp knife to pull away the tough, stringy outer skin (just like the strings of celery) and leave the stem attached to the artichoke. This will expose the light-coloured, centre portion, which is very flavourful and tender and much appreciated by Italians.
- Drain the artichokes from the acidulated water and squeeze dry (I use a clean tea towel).
- Select a large, shallow, saucepan to sauté the artichokes. They should not be crowded and if you do not have a large enough pan, sauté them in batches – you want to create as little liquid as possible.
- Place some of the extra virgin olive oil in the pan and sauté the artichokes on low heat until they are tender. This may take up to 10 minutes or more depending on the freshness and age of the artichokes (add a little water or white wine if the ingredients are drying out).
- Remove the artichokes and set aside.
- Add a little more, extra virgin olive oil to the pan (and/or you may be able to drain some from the sautéed artichokes) and sauté the other vegetables in the same pan, separately. Proceed as follows:
- Sauté the onion until it begins to colour, remove from the pan and add to the artichokes.
- Add a little more extra virgin olive oil and sauté the celery.
- Add the olives, capers, salt and tomatoes to the celery. Simmer gently for about 5-7 minutes. Add a little water if needed (this mixture should have the consistency of a thick sauce.)
- Remove the mixture from the pan and add it to the sautéed artichokes and onions.
- To make the agro dolce (sweet sour) sauce:
- Add the sugar to the pan and caramelise the sugar by stirring it until it melts and begins to turn a honey colour.
- Add the vinegar and swirl it around to collect the flavours of the sautéed vegetables and evaporate it (2-3 minutes).
- Place all of the sautéed vegetables and artichokes into the pan with the agro dolce sauce and gently toss the ingredients, as you would do a salad.
- Simmer on very gentle heat to amalgamate the flavours for about 3-5 minutes.
- Place caponata into a sealed container or jar and store in the fridge. Leave it to stand at least a day but preferably longer.
Now, for the easier cheat’s version:
- To make caponata, where the ingredients are not fried separately, proceed as follows:
- Prepare and sauté the artichokes as in the proceeding recipe.
- Add a little more extra virgin olive oil and heat it. Add the onion and the celery and sauté until they begin to colour.
- Add the olives, capers, sugar, salt, vinegar and tomatoes. Cover and simmer gently until tender (5-10 minutes or more depending on the freshness and age of the artichokes).
