De Felici Artichokes Roman Style (Carciofi alla Romano)

Italy is the world formost grower and consumer of Italian artichokes. This recipe was described to me in detail by my waiter at Da Felice Trattoria in Rome’s Tedesco district. The restaurant has mixed reviewsdue the gruff nature of the owner, signore Felice, who has the tendency to bounce those he does not like but if you look like a “foodie”, your welcomed. The menu is not written down, the waiter will tell you about the days offerings. For many Italians, this place is a favourite and tend to fill up early for lunch. As I recall, it’s cash only.

This recipe is for globe artichokes.

12 young artichokes with stems attached

1 cup olive oil

3 crushed cloves of garlic

Pinch red pepper

1 cup table white wine

1/3 cup wine vinegar

1 cup water

Preheat the oven to 350F. Prepare a tin foil to cover the pan. In a small pan, add the olive oil and water. Heat the pan to a boil, add the crush red pepper, turn down the heat to medium, let cook for a minute or so. Turn off, add the garlic. Cover, and let stand for 90 minutes covered. This allows the garlic to infuse the oil. Add vinegar to taste.

Wash the artichokes. Using a sharp knife trim the outer leaves show the inner lite greener leaves show. Cut the top off, leaving 3/4 inch of the choke above the hearts. Using a peller, peel down the stem leaving the stem free of the outer tuff parts. Rub each artichoke with lemon juice as you prepare the chokes as you go so as the keep the colour. Place each choke, wash in water, then inverted, stem up, face down in cooking pan with our water/oil mixture. With all the chokes done, cover them with a large sheet of tin foil. Place in over for 90 minutes or until easily pierced with a knife.

Remove from oven. Carefully crack the foil, careful to avoid being burned by escaping steam. Allow these to cool, the either leave on counter or refrigerate to use the next day.

To serve, add chokes stem up to a small frying pan, add some liquid from the pan we oven cooked the artichokes in. Heat the frying pan to hot, put in preheated oven at 350F for 10-15 minutes until hot.

This restuarant is on Via Mastro Giorgio 29, Roma.