A few recipes and little curiosities about artichokes, real stars of the kitchen in winter.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him"Against the wear and tear of modern life" read a famous commercial a few years ago, referring to a liqueur based on artichoke. With this we are not inviting you to pursue a career as a heavy drinker, but we suggest you visit i instead neighborhood Markets and stock up on artichokes, the vegetables protagonists of the winter.
This is a much healthier choice, also because i artichokes they are rich in fibers, mineral salts e Vitamins; they also have purifying and digestive properties and it seems that they are also valid allies for controlling the level of cholesterol in the blood.
Its benefits have been known since ancient times: it comes from Middle East the Egyptians used it in the preparation of delicious dishes, thus exploiting their therapeutic qualities. Cultivated also by the Arabs, who called it karshuf (or kharshaf) and by the Romans, who loved to cook it in water and wine, the artichoke became over the centuries one of the grandi protagonists of the kitchen, loved by well-known and lesser-known faces, artists and queens. For example, it is said that Caravaggio, notoriously an unfriendly type, threw a plate of artichokes straight in the face of an unfortunate boy, who had not been able to tell him whether they had been cooked in oil or butter; when we say genius and recklessness ...
there different varieties of artichoke: Ligurian is sweet, the romanesque tender and the Sardinian a bit edgy. They bloom from October to April (depending on quality) and lend themselves to being protagonists of numerous recipes, from first courses to side dishes, from appetizers to unique dishes.
A great classic is the Giudia artichoke, typical of the Roman-Jewish cuisine: to begin with, you need to remove the most external leaves, the most leathery ones, and clean the stem. At this point they must be opened slightly and, holding them by the stem, they are immersed in hot oil, which must cover them almost entirely. They should be removed from the heat, and left to drain on kitchen paper only when the outermost part has become golden and crunchy. Usually they are served at the beginning of the meal, but once you have tasted one it is difficult to want to eat another one.
Artichokes can also be the ideal filling for one salty cake, easy to prepare, especially if you are familiar with the preparation of shortcrust pastry or puff pastry: they are needed eight artichokes, which must be sliced quite finely (together with the stems) and placed in an emulsion of lemon, oil, salt, pepper and chopped parsley. After half an hour they must be transferred to a pan in which we will have previously spread the previously prepared sheet of pasta; it is covered with another sheet and cooked in the oven at 180 ° for about forty minutes. A real treat. And what other recipes do you suggest?
Sara Pietrantoni
