Stuffing Artichokes While Working

If you are my age, then you will remember that commercial (I forget what they were selling) of a woman cooking in sweats behind a hot stove, while “I’m a woman” music blared in the background.  Once she started a slow strip tease, taking her gloves off seductively, you realized – wow!  Women have come a long way.  Well, I am here to tell you that cooking great stuffed artichokes doesn’t have to take all day or a secret recipe; you can even do it while you’re working.
This is my grandmother’s recipe, passed down to my mother, who passed it on to me.  Since I have no children I thought I would pass it on to my readers.  Keep in mind I cooked these four artichokes while bloging, twittering and talking on the phone.  Let’s call this:

The 4 Steps to Making Great Stuffed Artichokes

INGREDIENTS
4 Large artichokes
4 medium onions diced
4-5 cloves of garlic – diced
2 cups of sliced mushrooms (packed add more if you like mushrooms)
½ cup of finely chopped parsley
½ lb of Proscuitto if you don’t have any half a pack of bacon will be a great substitute
1 cup of black Greek olives (pitted)
2 cups of Italian bread crumbs
½ cup of grated Parmesan
½ cup of dry white wine

Once you have cleaned, de-thorned and cut the stalk of your artichoke, open them up.  Spread the leaves open with your thumb until you can see the center of the artichoke.  (Figure 1)

What that will do is basically stretch the artichoke up for the stuffing.  Set them aside.  Make sure you cut the base so when you do lay them out in the steamer they are going to be flat and not tilt to one side or another.

Get a large frying pan and start by frying your bacon or Proscuitto.  The oil from the bacon can be used to fry your onions, garlic and mushrooms.  If you are using the Proscuitto, add about 2 tablespoons of virgin olive oil.  Remember the mushrooms retain a lot of water, so add those last.

Once you have diced all your onions, garlic, mushrooms, olives and fried them, add the wine.  Let that reduce and cool.  (Figure 2)

In a separate bowl, pour your breadcrumbs with Parmesano and cut parsley, and mix the pan ingredients into the bowl.  Mix very well, add one egg to tighten this mixture.  This will give it a better consistency once you start stuffing the artichoke flower.  Start stuffing the middle of the flower by adding more and more stuffing towards the outer leaves.  (Figure 3)

You can go a little crazy with how much stuffing you add per artichoke; just keep in mind that the stuffing ingredients will only be enough for four artichokes.  Remember when steaming vegetables, you don’t want your artichoke touching the water.

Add just enough water to steam at a low heat for about an hour to maybe one hour and a half.  Pull a leaf and taste it to make sure the meat is tender.  Let this cool.  (Figure 4)

Once you are ready to serve, make sure you add a nice, dry, crisp white wine with tart, green-apple flavors as an addition to this meal.  Buon Appetito!

Tagged as: Italian artichokes, Nonas recipe, Stuffed Artichokes