Artichokes filled with fish and ricotta
The Versatile Artichoke
Artichokes are one of my favourite vegetables. I am so glad Italy has so many varieties - at least 20, maybe more like 25 - available over a long period. We have autumn varieties and spring varieties but between the late ripening autumn varieties kind and the early ripening spring ones there is no noticeable gap, so the season runs from October to May. The spring artichokes are bigger and they are considered better. I love all of them but I must say it is exciting when the splendidly chubby round Roman Mammole arrive, they are definitely the most magnificent and sumptuous of all!
I had two 2 tender round Apulia artichokes to prepare and I pondered the many possible things I could do, the many clever-things-to-do-with-artichokes that the cuisines of Italy propose. For Italy has infinite ways of cooking artichokes and the artichoke section is a general recipe book is usually long. There are artichoke soups and artichoke salads or carpaccios when the artichokes are really young and truly tender. There are a great many artichoke pastas and risottos. Then there are artichoke crostini, sformati and frittate, artichoke pizzas and pies. Artichokes may also be braised, stewed or baked, alone or with veal or chicken, rabbit or lamb. They go well with shrimp, sea bream and sardines. There are artichoke lasagnes and parmigianas, even a winter caponata. And they can be stuffed of course, the whole thing or just the hearts. In an artichoke post on my other blog I mentioned some of the myriads of possible fillings. Then again the artichokes can themselves become the filling for pork chops, or for calamari or ravioli or beef roll ups . They can be cooked with potatoes, or with peas, or with peas and favas. Fried artichokes, braised artichokes, grilled artichokes, baked artichokes: the list of possibilities was endless.
I am very partial to fish and love artichoke in combination with fish and seafood. Artichoke and calamari is one of my favourite pasta dressings - it just beats artichokes and clams - and you can see how scrummy it looks here. I took my decision because of the other things I had available and I chose to make a light recipe for fish and ricotta stuffed artichokes. It was delicately sweet and nutty, lovely creamy texture to the filling. And fun to eat, and easy to make. Here's the recipe.
You will need
2 small artichokes
120g ( 4 ounces) ricotta or soft cream cheese
- the filling won't be so soft and mousse like but you can use breadcrumbs instead, made from a good sized slice of crustless day old bread dampened in milk and squeezed out -
3 sprigs fresh flat leaf parsley
2 cloves of garlic
120g of white fish fillets (sole, hake or a similar delicate fish)
a lemon (for keeping the artichoke from discolouring)
EVO oil
salt and pepper
To prepare the filling
Prepare the fish fillets by wrapping tightly in plastic kitchen film (saran wrap / cling film). Place the wrapped fish in a steamer basket that fits snugly over a pot of gently boiling water. Cover the basket and steam fish three minutes or so, then remove, and unwrap so they cool.
Strip the leaves from the parsley. Peel the two garlic cloves, cut in half to remove the shoot, then mince just one clove of garlic and the parsley together and place in a bowl. Add the ricotta and blend well with a fork. Chop the second garlic clove roughly and set aside.
Flake the cooled down fish minutely, using your fingers to make sure you catch and remove any tiny fish bones, then place in the bowl with the ricotta, garlic and parsley and mix again to get a very smooth and well amalgamated paste. Season generously with salt and pepper, add a little oil then mix again. The mixture should be fairly soft but neither dry nor runny. Adjust with olive oil, breadcrumbs or a little cheese as needed to get the texture right.
To prepare the artichokes
Prepare the artichokes by cutting the stem off in such away that the artichokes can stand upright. Prepare the stem as usual, cutting away all the woody stringy outside.
You can look up artichoke preparation here, scroll down a little.
Place stems in a bowl of cold water acidulated with the lemon juice as soon as they are ready.
Continue preparing the artichokes which you are going to trim and leave whole. Use kitchen scissors to trim off the top of each leaf, working round and round and cutting neatly. Rub the base with lemon to prevent discolouration.
Holding the artichoke by the base, press down gently on to a chopping board and rotate gently to help loosen the leaves. Turn it back up, place your thumbs in the centre and carefully widen leaves out so you can get in there to snip the tops of the larger centre leaves. Make sure you remove all trace of the choke with a grapefruit spoon, a melon baller or just a teaspoon. Place in the acidulated water.
To finish and cook
Divide the filling into two and fill each artichoke placing almost all the filling in the centre. Place tiny dabs of the remaining filling between some of the leaves, working from inside to outside. Just a little, to motivate you as you eat! The tender heart and the fish filling are the reward that awaits after you have scraped the outer leaves one at a time, the little dabs are to give you the occasional little preview of the filling as you make your way to the there.
Take a small saucepan with fairly high sides and drizzle in 2 tbsp. of olive oil. Put in the artichoke and parsley stems and the roughly chopped garlic , and set the filled artichokes in the pan. The artichokes should be upright and close together - I use balls of cooking foil or wedges of potato to fill in gaps and keep them secure when I'm making just two. Carefully add enough water to come up about a third of the way making sure you don't pour it on the filling and drizzle the tops lightly with olive oil.
Place the pan on moderate heat and when the water comes to the boil, cover and lower the heat. Cook small tender artichokes for 30 minutes and larger ones for at least 45 minutes and up to an hour. The timing depends a lot on the variety of artichoke you are using, so test by inserting a thin bamboo skewer into the centre - it should pierce the heart easily and the artichokes should be tender but nowhere near falling apart when ready.
Make sure you set a bowl or plate for the pile of well scraped leaves that will accumulate as you eat. Serve with a drizzle of your best olive oil and enjoy!
**Now I have a question for you. Which artichoke recipe among the ones I listed above would you most like to see next? I would like to do one more artichoke recipe and maybe you can let me know which most appeals to you in a brief comment. Thank, I appreciate your help.**
