In spring and autumn in Sicily, but also in many other regions of southern Italy, such as Puglia, you can see farmers with small delivery trucks in the cities, on their delivery areas is a mountain of artichokes, which are offered directly for sale.

Happy Italy – artichokes are now hard to find in vegetable stores beyond the Alps. One reason for this is the (unnecessary) respect for preparing them.

The basic recipe is quite simple and one or two markets still carry them. Try it and in the future you won’t walk by a stall full of fresh artichokes, but happily carry them home in anticipation of a nice appetizer.

Season in spring and winter

For artichokes can be harvested fresh twice. In spring and winter. In the spring, artichoke heads are usually smaller. But even in winter there are small to medium fresh artichokes.

Better leave the big heads with the pointed leaves that look like you need pruning shears to cut them. They are not suitable for starting as a novice cook.

See artichokes now in winter, like the following, grab them.

The favorite vegetable of Catherine de Medici

The contemporary witnesses reported that Catherine de Medici had a special fondness for artichokes and had them served often and abundantly.

Italian emigrants to the United States began growing artichokes in California. For a time there, they became so popular that the mafia reportedly got into the artichoke trade.

It is said that the mayor of New York then toyed with the idea of banning the importation of California artichokes into New York as a way of dealing a blow to the Mafia.

A beautiful legend. We suspect that even at the time, this would have elicited only a mild smile from the other side.

Florence and California probably did not get excited about the phytonutrients such as apegenin, cynarin, sylimarin and luteulin, which are found in artichokes and are diuretic.

They are the reason why the nutrients of the artichoke are popularly used in traditional medicine applications for the detoxification of bile and liver.

The reason for the preference for artichokes at the royal court and in trattorias is simply their excellent taste.

The starter recipe

Wash the artichokes.

Cut off the stems and remove the hard part of the bottom, revealing the soft artichoke base.

Trim the tops of the artichokes with kitchen shears and rub the cut ends with a lemon to preserve the beautiful color.

Place artichokes in a pot of water and add to the water salt, garlic, flat-leaf parsley and half a natural lemon cut into four pieces.

Simmer the artichokes for 20-30 min and then let them steep for 20-30 min.

The length of cooking time depends on the freshness and size of the artichoke heads. Fresh, small to medium artichokes require only 20 min. each.

Serve 2 small artichokes per person with a light lemon mayonnaise as an appetizer. The individual sheets can be easily peeled off. Dip the end of it in the mayonnaise and pull out with relish.

Finally, the best: the delicate artichoke base.

There are some cooks who serve a very spicy sauce, for example with anchovies and garlic with the artichoke. From our point of view, a delicate lemon mayonnaise is sufficient, which is already available in good quality in stores.

If you would like to serve a more substantial appetizer course, you could serve a shrimp salad and fresh baguette with it.

See Also

WHO CAN RESIST WARM CHOCOLATE CAKE?

A little note about wine: with fresh artichokes on your tongue, the taste of your favorite wine may change on your palate.

Just skip the white wine with this course and look forward to the decanted red wine with the next course.

For advanced

In Sicily, artichokes like to be cooked in the ashes of a wood-burning oven. There are special metal molds for this purpose, which are similar to muffin molds. This gives the artichokes a blackish charred complexion.

If you pull the leaves from the artichoke, the taste result is delicious. But who already owns a wood-burning stove and the appropriate molds.

This form of presentation is suitable for the to do list of your next trip to Sicily, to look for carciofo al forno on the menus there.

Meanwhile, you can clean small fresh artichokes as before and wrap them in aluminum foil with fresh thyme Maldon salt, pepper and olive oil.

After 20-30 minutes (depending on size) at 220 degrees Celsius in the oven, the small packages smell when opened and make you think of Italy.

Jerusalem artichokes

In England, in the winter time, you can often find on the menus a risotto with Jerusalem artichokes, whose earthy flavor fits perfectly into the season. Jerusalem artichokes are known in the German-speaking world as Jerusalem artichokes.

Unfortunately, they are rarely offered in risotto in this country, but rather processed into liquor or fed to horses.

Unfortunately, we have not yet discovered a risotto with Jerusalem artichokes on the menu in this country, such as the one served at the River Café in London.

Our friends from ThePassionist will be happy to book you into the most interesting hotels in London and you can enjoy the culinary diversity in the city on the Thames.

Meanwhile, our friends in the restaurant industry in this country unfortunately have other worries. We hope that they will survive these difficult times and that in sunnier times we can all enjoy risotto with Jerusalem artichokes on the continent as well.