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Fried Artichoke
(Carciofi fritti) Take two artichokes, cut out the hard part of the leaves and of the stalk, cut them in two.
Then cut these halves into section or slices so as to have eight or ten for each artichoke, according to size. As you cut them, throw them into cold water and when they are well washed, dry them, but not thoroughly, putting them at once into the flour so that the latter remains attached to it. Beat the white of an egg, but not to a froth, then mix the yolk with the white and salt the whole. Shake out the artichokes to take away the superfluous flour and then put them in the egg, leaving them for a while so that the egg may be attached to them.
Throw the pieces one by one into the pan where there is boiling fat, butter or olive oil, and when they are well browned, take them away and serve with lemon. If it is desired that the artichokes remain white, it is better to fry them in oil and to squeeze half lemon into the water where the artichokes are put to soften. 29
A straightforward flour-and-egg fry that depends almost entirely on how the artichokes are trimmed and how hot the fat is. Two artichokes serve two as a side dish or four as an antipasto.
- Which artichokesThe method works best with globe artichokes small enough that the choke is still soft and edible, the kind sold in Italy in spring. With large mature globes you must also scrape out the hairy choke after halving, or those wedges will be inedible.
- Trimming"Cut out the hard part of the leaves and of the stalk" means snapping off the tough outer leaves, cutting the top inch off the cone, and paring the stem down to its pale core. The stem is worth keeping; peeled, it fries as well as the heart.
- Acidulated waterThe closing note is the important one, not an afterthought. Cut surfaces oxidise within minutes, so have the lemon water ready before you start cutting, not after.
- "Dry them, but not thoroughly"Deliberate. A film of moisture is what makes the flour cling. Bone-dry wedges shed their coating in the fat.
- "Boiling fat"Fat does not boil; the phrase means hot enough to bubble vigorously around the food. Aim for 340-360F. Below that the egg coating soaks; much above it, the coating colours before the artichoke is tender.
- The eggWhite beaten loose, then the yolk stirred in and salted, gives a thin batter that clings rather than a puffy one. Letting the floured wedges sit in it for a while, as directed, is what fixes the coating in place.
- Oil versus butterThe recipe allows butter, fat or olive oil, but notes that oil is better if you want the artichokes to stay white. Butter browns readily, so olive oil or a neutral oil is the choice for a pale gold finish.
- DonenessColour alone is not the test. A wedge is ready when the base of the heart yields to a knife point, roughly 3-4 minutes for thin slices. Drain on paper, salt again, and serve with lemon wedges immediately; they slacken as they sit.
Carciofi fritti belongs to the large Italian family of fried vegetables, and this version follows the pattern found in Pellegrino Artusi's La scienza in cucina e l'arte di mangiar bene (first published 1891): flour first, then beaten whole egg, then hot fat, with lemon at the table. Artichokes were a spring staple in central and southern Italy long before they were familiar in American markets. The Roman-Jewish carciofi alla giudia takes a different route to the same end, flattening a whole artichoke and frying it twice in oil with no coating at all. The numeral at the close of the entry is a reference number carried over from the original book, not part of the method.