Skip to main content Skip to footer site map
S39E6: Marcella | Clip

Make the Perfect Roman-style Artichokes

SHARE

One of Marcella Hazan’s most interesting recipes is her upside-down artichokes, also known as Roman-style artichokes. Watch teacher and writer Giuliano Hazan make it here and level up your artichoke game.

Full Roman-style Artichokes Recipe

Ingredients:

For 4 servings
4 large globe artichokes
½ lemon
3 tablespoons parsley chopped very fine
1½ teaspoons garlic chopped very fine
6 to 8 fresh mint leaves, chopped fine
Salt
Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
½ cup extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

1. In preparing any artichoke it is essential to discard all the tough, inedible leaves and portions of leaves. When doing it for the first time it may seem wasteful to throw so much away, but it is far more wasteful to cook something that can’t be eaten. Begin by bending back the outer leaves, pulling them down toward the base of the artichoke, and snapping them off just before you reach the base. Do not take the paler bottom end of the leaf off because at that point it is tender and quite edible. As you take more leaves off and get deeper into the artichoke, the tender part at which the leaves will snap will be farther and farther from the base. Keep pulling off single leaves until you expose a central cone of leaves that are green only at the tip, and whose paler, whitish base is at least 1½ inches high.

Slice at least an inch off the top of that central cone to eliminate all of the tough green part. Take the half lemon and rub the cut portions of the artichoke, squeezing juice over them to keep them from discoloring.

Look into the exposed center of the artichoke, where you will see at the bottom very small leaves with prickly tips curving inward. Cut off all those little leaves and scrape away the fuzzy “choke” beneath them, being careful not to cut away any of the tender bottom. If you have a small knife with a rounded point, it will be easier for you to do this part of the trimming. Return to the outside of the artichoke and, where you have snapped off the outer leaves, pare away any of the tough green part that remains. Be careful not to cut off the stem, which, for this dish, must remain attached.

Turn the artichoke upside down and you will notice, inspecting the bottom of the stem, that the stem consists of a whitish core surrounded by a layer of green. The green part is tough, the white, when cooked, soft and delicious, so you must pare away the green, leaving the white intact. Pare the stem thus all the way to the base of the artichoke, being careful not to detach it. Rub all the exposed cut surfaces with lemon juice.

2. In a bowl mix the chopped parsley, garlic, and mint leaves, and add salt and a few grindings of pepper. Set aside one-third of the mixture. Press the rest into the cavity of each artichoke, rubbing it well into the inner sides.

3. Choose a heavy-bottomed pot with a tight-fitting lid, such as enameled cast iron, tall enough to accommodate the artichokes, which are to go in standing. Put in the artichokes, tops facing down, stems pointing up. Rub the remaining herb and garlic mixture over the outside of the artichokes. Add all the olive oil, plus enough water to come up and cover one-third of the leaves, but not the stems.

4. Take a sufficient length of paper towels that, when doubled up, will completely cover the top of the pot. Or a muslin cloth will do as well. Soak the towels or cloth in water, and place over the top of the pot, covering it completely. Put the lid over the towels or cloth, then pull back over the lid any portion of them hanging down the sides of the pot.

5. Turn on the heat to medium and cook for 35 to 40 minutes. The artichokes are done when a fork easily pierces the thick part between the stem and the heart. Cooking times may vary depending on the freshness of the artichokes. If they are tough and take long to cook, you may have to add 2 or 3 tablespoons of water from time to time. If, on the other hand, they are very fresh and are cooked before all the water has simmered away, uncover the pot, remove the towels or muslin, and turn up the heat, quickly boiling away the water. The edges of the leaves resting on the bottom of the pot may turn brown, but do not worry, it improves their flavor.

6. When done, transfer the artichokes to a serving platter, setting them down with their stems pointing up. Reserve the olive oil and other juices from the pot: They are to be poured over the artichokes only just before serving. If you were to pour the oil and juices over the artichoke when it is still hot, it would soak them up, making the artichoke greasy and sodden, and depriving it of the sauce with which later you want to accompany it.

The ideal serving temperature is when the artichokes are no longer hot, but have not yet cooled completely, when they are still faintly touched by the waning warmth of cooking. But they are excellent even later, at room temperature, as they are usually served in Rome. Plan to use them the same day, however; like all cooked greens, their flavor deteriorates in the refrigerator.

From Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking: 30th Anniversary Edition by Marcella Hazan. Copyright © 1992 by Marcella Hazan. Foreword copyright © 2022 by Victor Hazan. Excerpted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

TRANSCRIPT

(pleasant music) (food sizzling) - Hello, I'm Giuliano Hazan.

Today I am going to make braised artichokes Roman style.

This is one of my mother Marcella Hazan's recipes from her cookbook "Essentials of Classic Italian cooking."

These artichokes are a wonderful appetizer and in fact, my mother served these to the New York Times food editor, Craig Clayborne, when he came over for lunch.

So the first thing that we're going to do is we're going to trim the artichokes.

If you've ever eaten an artichoke leaf by leaf, you know you scrape the bottom part with your teeth.

Well, that's the tender part and that's the part that we wanna keep.

And we want to get rid of all the other parts.

So what we do is we take our artichoke and we start removing the leaves.

We wanna snap them where they snap naturally and then pull the leaf off.

You can see that this bottom part is still there.

That's the part that you would've scraped off with your teeth, if you ate it leaf by leaf.

(pleasant music) (leaves ripping) One thing I like to do is to take a lemon, cut it in half.

(board clacks) And you know how artichokes can make your fingers dark.

If you rub lemon all over your hands like this, it will prevent that from happening.

And when the artichokes are trimmed, we're going to put them in some water that has some lemon juice in it.

(pleasant music) Then you cut the top of the artichoke off.

(artichokes scrunching) The stem of the artichoke is very good.

So we're not gonna cut off the stem.

We're actually gonna be brazing these upside down with the stem sticking up.

But you do wanna cut off the little bit, that's the bottom of the stem because that part usually brown and dried up.

And then the stem has a white part in the center.

That's the part that's tender and good.

So what we wanna do is we want to save that part and trim away all of the rest.

(pleasant music) Now the stem that we have left there is all tender.

This outer part that's dark green is also tough.

So we do need to trim that part.

The knife that I'm using is curved.

This is what they call a bird's beak.

And it works perfectly for the artichokes because it helps that the blade is slightly curved.

As you go around the artichoke like this and you trim away the dark green outer part.

If you're good at carving or whittling, you'll be very good at this.

And then I take my lemon, and I rub it on the outside of the artichoke.

(pleasant music) There's one more thing that we have to remove, and that's the choke, this inside part where all those purple leaves are.

And to do that, I use a dinner knife.

It has to be something with a rounded tip.

What we wanna do is we want to pry that choke there using this knife.

So I go all the way around on the outside of the purple leaves till I reach the heart, and then I want to scrape all that stuff out.

And then finally, another little bit of lemon directly inside like that rub.

And then you put it in your lemon water.

(pleasant music) So now that the artichokes are trimmed, we're going to make the herb mixture that we're going to season them with.

I have parsley, mint, and garlic.

So first I'm gonna start with the parsley.

(pleasant music) There's actually a saying in Italy that somebody who turns up everywhere is kind of like parsley because we always use parsley.

(pleasant music) (parsley scrunching) (board scraping) So now we're going to chop some mint and add some mint to our mixture.

(board knocking) So now we're going to add it to our parsley.

(board scraping) The last thing we need to chop is the garlic.

I don't like whacking the blade of a sharp knife, so I use the handle instead.

When the garlic cracks, then you'll be able to remove the skin easily.

(garlic snipping) (board scraping) And add it to our mixture.

Remember, you have to salt all four artichokes and some pepper.

Mix it all up nicely.

(pleasant music) And then I put a little more of the mixture inside the artichoke and then some on the outside.

(pleasant music) And depending on how fresh and tender the artichokes are, they could take anywhere from 20 to 35 minutes to cook.

Good extra virgin olive oil.

And then they need some water to cook and be halfway up the artichokes.

So they need to cook with the lid very tightly sealed on top.

And the trick to having a very tight seal is to use a wet towel.

I wrap the wet towel around the lid, bringing the ends up over the top and then put the lid on.

And that way it'll be really nice and tight, so you can start to hear the difference when all the water has evaporated.

Because the artichokes start to saute almost fry in the olive oil.

(pleasant music) (artichokes sizzling) So we want to take them out right away and put them on a serving platter to cool 'cause if you leave them in the pot, then they're gonna soak up all the oil, and we wanna save the oil and pour it on top of them afterwards when we serve them.

We are ready to serve our artichokes.

Put one on your plate.

We use a smaller plate because it's an appetizer.

And then this is the olive oil that was left in the pan.

And so we just pour a little bit of this over the artichoke.

(pleasant music) Let's see if it was worth the effort.

Mmm, it's so tender, dip it in the olive oil.

(pleasant music) Definitely worth it.

Well, I hope you enjoy this recipe, and I hope that you won't feel too intimidated by doing artichokes because they're really worth it.

Buon appetito!

(liquid gurgling)