Читать книгу Made in Italy: Food and Stories - Giorgio Locatelli - Страница 33

‘Beautiful, purple, perfect…’

In the restaurant kitchen we get through one box of baby globe artichokes a day when they are in season in the spring – usually carciofi spinosi from Sicilia or the purple violetta di chioggia. They are such beautiful things, less intensely iron-flavoured than the bigger ones, so they make a perfect raw salad. Slice them very thinly, mix with some salad leaves, season with salt and pepper, and dress with a little lemon juice or vinegar and oil mixed with a tablespoon of grated Parmesan. Finish with a handful of chopped chives and some shavings of Parmesan over the top – beautiful.

First, of course, you have to prepare them, which isn’t as complicated as you might think. Start by taking the artichoke in one hand and, leaving the stalk on (because it makes the artichoke look more elegant), snap off and discard each outside leaf in turn, stopping when you get down to the tender, pale green-yellow leaves. Next, with a small sharp paring knife, peel off the stringy outside of the stalk and work around the top of the stalk at the base of the artichoke, trimming and scraping away the base and turning the artichoke as you go. Finally, trim off the pointed tops of the remaining leaves, then cut each artichoke in half lengthways and use a spoon to scoop out and discard the hairy choke from each half (it will be very small, as the artichokes are not fully developed). To prevent the artichokes discolouring, rub them with a halved lemon, then keep them submerged in a bowl of water with a squeeze of lemon juice added (or vitamin C, which you can buy from health food shops) until you are ready to use them.

Something we like to do with baby artichokes is make carciofi fritti. We prepare the artichokes as described above, dust them with hard durum wheat flour, then deep-fry them in moderately hot oil (160°C) until crisp, season and serve straight away.

Another of our favourite starters is Artichoke Salad with Parmesan (see overleaf), which uses both raw and marinated blanched artichokes, prepared in the same way my grandmother used to do them. In our kitchen at home in Corgeno, we always had a jar of preserved artichokes on a cool shelf, ready to use in the winter months when fresh ones were out of season. Homemade marinated artichokes are so much tastier than bought ones that I suggest whenever you are making a recipe that calls for artichokes, you prepare four or five times the quantity you need and preserve the rest (see page 84). Then you will always have some to hand, not only for this salad but also just to serve with prosciutto or salami, or as part of an antipasti.