Sweet and sour artichokes
- jenniferjoycefood
- May 2, 2024
- 2 min read
Updated: May 6, 2024
Artichoke season is here and I wanted to share my favourite recipe for these spikey purple beauties. Better known as carciofi agroducle, these sweet and sour chokes are delicious as antipasti, paired with burrata for a starter or stirred through pasta. The Italian Tema or Mammole are perfect as you get a small choke and more meat after preparing. I avoid the globe varieties as they are a nightmare to pare down and are better off in a steamer. If you live in London, Natoora always carries them. It's not hard to trim them once someone shows you so watch my video to see how it's done.
Sweet and sour artichokes
serves 4 as a starter
8 medium artichokes ( violetta, tema or mammole- Natoora)
3 lemons, cut in half
5 cloves of garlic finely chopped
4 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
small handful mint leaves chopped
3 tbsps good quality red or moscatel wine vinegar
1 tbsp yellow sultanas
1 tbsps honey
100ml white wine
20g flat leaf parsley finely chopped
In a large bowl of water, squeeze 1 lemon into the water. Pull the hard leaves off, and discard. Using a very sharp paring knife, peel the bottom and stem. Using a larger heavier knife cut the top half of the leaves off. Slice in half and run a knife along the fuzzy choke inside. Use a teaspoon to remove the choke and then place it in the lemon water. If you use tiny baby artichokes, they might not have any choke to remove. Repeat with the other chokes. Depending on the size, you may want to slice them in half again or leave them in halves.
In a medium-large saucepan with a fitted lid, heat the olive oil and garlic on medium heat. When it's golden, after a few minutes, add the drained artichokes. Add some salt and pepper and toss in the oil. Pour in the vinegar, sultanas, honey, mint and white wine and place a lid on top. Keep cooking for 5-6 minutes, on medium high heat, stirring a few times in between. They are done when they are knife-tender. Even better, eat one to test!
3. Sprinkle with parsley and serve on small plates.
