We are in spring artichoke season. I got a bunch of different types from Natoora: the choke-less Italian ‘mammole’ type, tiny little purple ones, large ones with deep spikes on the edge of each leaf. I prepped them all Roman style. Ideally you need a small curved knife – some Italian chefs get a paring knife and ask a knife sharpener to grind it down to almost a mini-machete such as below.
I just attended the Ladispoli artichoke festival where I ate fried artichokes for four days. Delicious. Artichauts à la Barigoule is a French, Provencale recipe, in which I used lots of different artichokes. If you only have the ones with the hairy choke, make sure you dig down and remove it. When prepped it should look like a rose.
Tip: the more white wine or dry sherry you use, the more delicious. At the top of this post there’s a not very good photo of the one I made but it gives you an idea.
Artichauts à la Barigoule
Ingredients
- 1 lemon for rubbing artichokes & acidulating the water
- 15 mammole artichokes(which serves 3 per person for a main course), prepped: stems left on but peeled, any hairy choke removed
- olive oil for frying
- 1 large brown onion, chopped finely
- 5 cloves garlic
- 3 carrots, sliced finely into rounds
- 1 stick celery, sliced finely into rounds
- 2 bay leaves
- 1.5 litres vegetable stock
- 2 glasses white wine or dry sherry
- bunch parsley
- 100 g butter
Instructions
- Prep the artichokes, peeling the stalks, removing outer leaves, shaving down the leaves. Rub exposed parts with lemon and leak to soak in lemon (acidulated) water
- Using a deep wide pan on a low to medium heat, soften the onions then add the carrots and celery, garlic, bay leaves.
- Add the artichokes stem side up and fry gently. Add the white wine/sherry, cook for 5 to 10 minutes, add the vegetable stock. Season with salt and pepper.
- Once the artichokes are tender (a fork goes easily through the heart) remove them from the pan, then cook down the sauce, adding more white wine if you like, adding the butter and parsley. Season generously with salt and pepper.
- Serve warm with more parsley and crusty bread.
Leave a Reply