Palermo Street Artichokes

Carciofi Lessi Palermitani

As a teenager, Sicily was always the mythical headquarters for Italian mafia and the epicentre of the whole underworld was Palermo. So it was with great anticipation that I visited Palermo and got to roam the streets being wary that everyone you would encounter could have a connection to some guy called Leftie.

But the streets of this busy city is where life continues to be as rich as ever, especially with hidden markets and lots of local food sellers strewn throughout the crazy network of streets. I was particularly interested in finding these artichokes that are cooked on the roadside every morning.

There are usually a number of other cauldrons containing other vegetables like potatoes and carrots. Throughout the year, the coal coloured cauldrons are filled with different seasonal produce so it was important to visit Palermo during the artichoke season and sample what I thought was Sicily’s fast food from the street, with an ancient heritage.

These artichokes can be something to grab on the run and snack on while you sit in a park watching old men playing cards but they may seem odd, I’m not sure. The most common way the locals tell me they eat them is to take them home, cut them up, mix and dress them in a simple garlic and chili oil. These can be cut up with other boiled vegetables from the neighbouring cauldrons and you can have an instant family meal.

While I never had a kitchen while I was in Palermo I have waited til now to try out the most traditional preparation and worked on a simple variation with coarse breadcrumbs, which retains local authenticity and adds another texture to the dish.

There are three great things about the preparation of artichokes in this way. The first is that apart from a quick rinse with water, you do not need to prepare or clean up the artichokes in any way. The second is that all you need to do is salt some boiling water and throw them in for half an hour. And finally, most of the artichoke, including the whole stem is usually edible.

 

Carciofi Lessi Palermitani

Ingredients

4 artichokes

4 cloves of garlic

1 large dried chili

1 handful of parsley leaf

2 handfuls if coarse breadcrumbs

extra virgin olive oil

Method

Bring a large pot of water to the boil and salt generously.

Rinse the artichokes and place them into the pot and allow to boil gently for about half an hour on the back burner.

Peel the garlic cloves and gently squash them with the side of the knife. Drizzle a generous amount of olive oil in a pan. Place the garlic in and allow to heat gently in the oil.

Finely chop the dried chili and add to the oil with the garlic remembering that the chili seeds carry most of the heat, so go easy with the amount of seeds if you prefer it more on the mild side.

Heat this through the oil very gently until the garlic turns golden in colour.

Remove the contents from the pan into a bowl and set aside.

Remove the garlic form the oil and chop up finely and add back to the oil stirring through again.

Chop your parsley leaf and add some of it to the chili garlic oil and mix through.

Heat another drizzle of extra virgin olive oil in the same pan and heat moderately before adding your coarse breadcrumbs. Keep these moving in the pan by tossing or using a wooden spatula. They are ready when they begin to look golden and crunchy. Remove from the pan immediately to stop cooking and set aside.

Now you have two options to dress the artichokes with. One, oil based and the other with the addition of breadcrumbs.

When the artichokes are tender enough for the point of a small sharp knife to penetrate, turn the heat off and gently remove from the water.

Allow to drain and cool slightly for 10 minutes of so.

When they are cool enough to handle, gently squeeze the remainder of the water out of them. Once that is done, it is time to cut them in half (or quarters) on your work-bench.

Using a sharp chefs knife, cut exactly into half taking extra care to continue the cut along the entire length of the stem. If you prefer you can actually start cutting the stem down the middle and continue into the body of the artichoke.

Cut all the artichokes in this way and lay out open side up. They will still be steaming on the inside.

If the artichokes have the little hairy centre, remove this using a teaspoon or melon baller.

Now you have a cavity for your dressing.

You can choose to spoon in the garlic chili oil mixture into the cavity and also drizzle the surrounding petals or you can mix in the breadcrumbs with the oil and fill the cavity with this mixture.

Finally, sprinkle with a little more chopped parsley leaf.

You can pre-prepare the artichokes ahead of time and allow them to cool entirely.

Cut and prepare the same way but reheat in an oven at 180 degrees C / 355 degrees F for 10 minutes with a loose foil covering to ensure no further drying out of the artichoke flesh.

Arrange on a large platter and serve.

These are eaten petal by petal.

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Potato Pizza with Artichokes

 

Pizza di Patate e Carciofi

 

This is not a dish commonly found in restaurants but more often prepared in homes and is as rustic as it gets. Sprucing up a dish like this to look fabulous is a challenge but the flavours and textures will not let you down. The southern Italian heritage comes through with the Scamorza cheese, which tends to resemble mozzarella but is firmer as it has less moisture. The flavour of Scamorza also has it’s own unique nuttiness and a pique that mozzarella does not. If you cannot find Scamorza at your deli, a good mozzarella will do but remember that Scamorza is saltier and earthier so the overall experience will be different. One thing to make sure of is that you do not have a punchy cheese that will compete with the artichokes for flavour. Scamorza is also stringy when it melts so you will get the same cheesy stretch when pulling it apart.

Now calling this a pizza will be hard for some traditionalists to accept. It has no pizza dough or topping and does not even end up looking like a pizza, but this is what it is called in the south of Italy and I am not offering an argument.

Once again, it is made up of a few ingredients to keep it simple and you probably have most of the ingredients in your kitchen already. The original recipe calls for potato and Scamorza. I added artichokes to see how they well they combine and there is a beautiful subtlety against the background of the potato but can only be discerned if the cheese does not dominate. There is also the addition of a grated cheese, which in modern recipes, tends to be Grana Padano (a northern cheese) but people who are true to their local area will choose a local cheese.

 

Ingredients ( serves 8 )

6 large potatoes

6 artichokes

250g / 9 Oz of Scamorza

50g /180 Oz of grated pecorino or Grana Padano

3 eggs

25g / 90 Oz of butter

1 clove of garlic

extra virgin olive oil

breadcrumbs

salt and  pepper

 

Method

Place the Scamorza in a food processor and blend until the cheese becomes crumbly.

Once it is evenly crumbly remove from the processor and set aside.

Peel the potatoes and place into a large pot of cold water.

Add some salt to the water and bring to the boil.

Meanwhile clean and prepare the artichokes.

Cut the artichokes into half and then slice.

Place them directly into lemon water.

In a heavy based saucepan, heat a clove of garlic in a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Heat the garlic til it is golden and remove from the oil.

Drain the artichokes of the lemon water and place into the pan and toss on a moderate heat for 5-10 minutes.

Add a little water to the pan and allow the artichokes to cook til slightly tender.

Season to taste.

If the water dries out you can add a little more until they are tender.

Test to see if the potatoes are cooked by piercing one with a sharp pointed knife. If it enters easily, remove them from the heat and drain them.

Once the potatoes are drained they can be blended in a food processor.

It is a good idea to do this two at a time.

They will blend into a paste like consistency.

Crack the eggs into the food processor with the potato and add the grated pecorino or Grana Padano.

Blend once more until you have a homogeneous mixture.

Season to taste.

Grease a 30cm round high edged cake tray with butter. I used a heavy pan, which could be put into an oven.

Sprikle the buttered pan with bread crumbs and ensure the entire buttered surface is covered with breadcrumbs.

Shake off any excess and discard.

Now place half the potato mixture into the pan and spread evenly to make what will be the base of your pizza

This is made easier if you are handling the potato mixture with wet hands or a wet spatula.

Add the crumbly Scamorza and spread evenly over the base leaving a 1cm border around the edge.

Put the artichokes you have cooked on top of this crumbly cheese and spread evenly.

 

Use the remaining half of the potato mixture to cover the pizza. Spread it evenly over the cheese and seal the top with this mixture.

Flatten it out with a wet spatula or with a wet hand.

Sprinkle with a handful of bread crumbs and cover evenly.

Cut a dozen little knobs of butter and place on top of the pizza.

Put into a pre-heated oven at 200 degrees Celsius / 390 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes or until the tops turns golden.

Remove from the oven and allow to settle for 5-10 minutes before slicing.

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