Carciofi Ripieni | Italian Stuffed Artichokes

Carciofi Ripieni | Italian Stuffed Artichokes | Chew Town Food Blog

Nostalgia is an incredible thing. Sights, smells, tastes and sounds all contribute to pull memories up from the deepest part of you and deliver them to you present day. My sister and I were watching my nephew play with his new bird recently and casually my sister said “remember Nonna’s little bird?” … until that moment I had completely forgotten that my grandmother used to have a bird that she would chat to in Italian and that would fly around the house following her.

It made me wonder how many things I have forgotten, and makes me look forward to the resurgence of memories too trivial for my brain to keep top of mind. Food memories seem to be very much top of mind, and always have been. Certain dishes my mother made as we were growing up provide feelings of comfort, warmth and love.

This is one of those dishes. I’m certain that if I had ever tried artichokes in any other way, I would never have liked them at all, but something about stuffing them with bread crumbs, egg, cheese, garlic and parsley, makes them incredible. But, along with the nostalgia of the dish itself is the nostalgia of my mother always making it in her Bessemer casserole dish.

Carciofi Ripieni | Italian Stuffed Artichokes | Chew Town Food Blog

All of my aunties who migrated to Australia had Bessemer in their arsenal. An Australian owned company, Bessemer was sold through home parties at the time and I can just imagine my mother and her sisters hosting parties to update their set of fire engine red pots. Lucky for me, Bessemer comes in black as well as red these days, and so I now have a bessemer casserole of my own to make my mother’s stuffed artichokes.

It’s not often I do a recipe reboot on Chew Town, in fact, I think I’ve only ever done it once and it was my family’s pizza recipe. But, here I am doing it again because 5 years on from the last time I posted this recipe, my photography has somewhat improved, and this dish deserves to look beautiful.

These stuffed artichokes (carciofi ripieni) are best made at the start of the artichoke season when leaves and stems are tender so that you can eat the leaves more easily. The sheer joy of peeling back each layer of leaves, pulling them between your teeth and finding the mother load of stuffing as you go is the epitome of gleeful nostalgia for me.

Carciofi Ripieni | Italian Stuffed Artichokes | Chew Town Food Blog

Carciofi Ripieni | Stuffed Artichokes

Ingredients

  • 4 artichokes
  • Juice of 1/2 lemon
  • 3 cups breadcrumbs
  • 2 cups grated romano cheese
  • 1 small handful continental parsley, finely chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic, 2 crushed and 1 whole
  • 2 eggs
  • Water
  • 1 teaspoon olive oil
  • Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

To prepare the artichokes, first remove the stalk from the base of the artichokes so that they sit flat and then remove a few rows of the outer leaves. Cut the tops off the artichokes so that the tips of all the leaves have been cut out and so you can see the layers of leaves when looking top down. Gently and carefully wiggle the tops of the leaves open so that you can make room for the stuffing to be pushed between them.

Place the prepared artichokes in a large bowl of water with the juice of half a lemon and pop a plate on top to keep the artichokes submerged. This will keep the artichokes moist and prevent them from discolouring while you prepare the stuffing, the acid will also start softening the leaves.

For the stuffing, you will need to have roughly 3 cups of breadcrumbs. Store bought breadcrumbs will not work so you will need to have some stale bread handy and make your own (as a tip, you can freeze breadcrumbs so whenever you have stale bread it can be turned into breadcrumbs and popped in the freezer until you need to use it). Place your breadcrumbs in a large bowl and add the cheese, parsley, crushed garlic, salt and pepper and one egg. You want the egg to only just bring the stuffing together as it shouldn’t be too wet. Should your ingredients not come together with one egg, add another.
Remove an artichoke from the water and shake the water loose. Take small handfuls of the stuffing and push into the centre of the artichoke and between the leaves. The more stuffing you have in each artichoke, the tastier it will be. For me, the best bit about eating it is finding little pieces of stuffing between the outer leaves as you work your way to the heart. Stuff all remaining artichokes.

Place your artichokes in a large Bessemer casserole dish with one inch of water covering the bottom, a tablespoon of olive oil and the final garlic clove cut in half. If you have any remaining stuffing roll it into small balls and add them to the casserole.

Put the casserole on the stove on a high heat and bring the water to the boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 30 – 40 minutes until the water has evaporated from the pot then serve.

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Carciofi Ripieni | Italian Stuffed Artichokes | Chew Town Food Blog

Chew Town would like to acknowledge its partnership with Bessemer for this post. You can read Chew Town’s disclosure statement here for more information on brands that Chew Town chooses to work with and why.

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Comments

  3. Kevin | Keviniscooking says

    Dave is a HUGE artichoke fan here, but I’m still on the fence, haven’t fallen for them. On occasion and at this wonderful Italian restaurant we hit up called Ristorante Arrivederci, I will eat them sautéed in olive oil, garlic and white wine – little baby one with edible stems. So good! These look fantastic stuffed with all sorts of deliciousness.
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  4. Sarah says

    I’ve seriously been dying to make artichokes lately…this must be a sign?? Right?? 🙂 Can’t wait to make these ASAP!

  6. Renee says

    I don’t know what the pictures looked like before, but these are gorgeous!! I do love a good stuffed artichoke!

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