Carciofi alla romana – Roman style artichokes

The Roman artichoke is a typical dish of Roman peasant cuisine. My grandmother Mariella, who grew up in Rome and was an excellent cook, has always prepared them, especially in spring and I, even as a child, loved them. So the recipe he left me, actually the same as the classic recipe, I use it every spring when the artichokes, the globe artichoke, with a rounder shape and non-thorny leaves, are more tender and without internal beards.

 

Ingredients

4 servings

• 8 artichokes
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 lemon
• extra virgin olive oil (for a good oil tap here)
• salt and pepper
• mint (or better mentuccia romana, a type of wild mint with a flavor resembling a cross between mint and oregano)
• fresh parsley
• 2 ladles of water

Method

Clean the artichokes by removing the hardest outer leaves with your hands. Don’t throw them away, keep them aside because you can do many other very good things!! (Tap here for seeing what you can do with them). Cut the stem leaving about an inch attached to the artichoke and clean it, the remaining part that will be cooked together with the artichokes. As soon the artichokes are clean, immerse them in a basin containing cold water, to which you will have added the juice of half  lemon and placing the squeezed-out skins into the water too. This will prevent the artichokes from darkening.

With the help of a crescent, finely chop the parsley, abundant, a few leaves of mint and the two cloves of garlic. Collect the mince in a bowl and season with salt and pepper.

Take the artichokes out of the water and dry them upside down on kitchen paper.

With your hands gently open the artichoke and fill well with the aromatic mince. Then place the artichokes with the stem side up in a pan. Put the clean stems between the artichokes and, if you want, a few potato wedges. Drizzle with good extra virgin olive oil, add a couple of ladles of water and cook, cove with a lid,  over low heat for about 50 minutes.

Grandma’s secret: take a paper bag of bread, open it in two, wet it under water, squeeze it well and place it on top of the artichokes. Then close with the lid. They will be soft!!

Serve the artichokes warm.