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Steamed Artichokes
(Carciofi a vapore) Artichokes have been only recently imported to the United States, principally by Italian farmers, and they are just beginning to find their way into the American kitchen. The artichokes may be eaten raw or cooked. It is a healthy and palatable vegetable, easily digested when cooked.
It is nutritious and adapted for convalescents. It may be prepared in a thousand ways, and here follow some of the simplest and most tasteful.
To prepare the steamed artichokes they must first be cleaned and the stalk cut to less than half an inch. Put them in a saucepan, standing on their bottoms, one near the other, in half an inch or more of water. In an opening made in the middle put salt and pepper, and pour inside as much good olive oil as they may contain. Cover well the saucepan and put it on the fire. The artichokes, that are already seasoned, will be cooked by the steam. 30
A whole-globe artichoke braise-steam that seasons from the inside out. The method works, but it needs more water and more time than the terse original implies.
- Choosing and trimmingUse globe artichokes that feel heavy and squeak when squeezed. Cut the stalk nearly flush as directed so they stand upright, snap off the tough outer leaves, and trim an inch off the top with a serrated knife. Rub cut surfaces with lemon to stop them blackening.
- Opening the middle"An opening made in the middle" means spreading the leaves apart at the crown with your thumbs until you can see down into the centre. Salt, pepper and oil go into that cavity so they run down through the leaves as the artichoke cooks.
- How much oil"As much good olive oil as they may contain" reads as generous, and it is: figure a tablespoon or two per medium artichoke. Any excess falls into the pan water and becomes the dipping liquid.
- Water level and timingThe original allows "half an inch or more"; half an inch alone will likely boil dry before the artichokes are done, so err toward an inch, keep the lid tight, and check every fifteen minutes to top up with hot water. Medium artichokes take roughly 35 to 45 minutes over a low-to-moderate flame.
- Testing for donenessAn outer leaf should pull away with no resistance, and a knife should slide into the base without pressure. Undercooked artichokes are woody at the heart, which is the part worth eating.
- The chokeThe book does not mention it. Young artichokes have little or no developed choke, which may be why, though the text gives no indication either way. Mature globe artichokes have a hairy centre above the heart; scrape it out with a spoon after cooking, or before, if you want to fit more oil into the cavity.
- PanA heavy saucepan or Dutch oven just wide enough to hold the artichokes wedged upright against each other. A wide pan lets them topple and spill their seasoning.
- Yield and servingOne artichoke per person as a starter. Serve warm or at room temperature with the oily pan liquid spooned over, and put out a bowl for the scraped leaves.
Maria Gentile's note that artichokes had "only recently" arrived in the United States, brought principally by Italian farmers, is a fair picture of the trade around 1919: commercial globe artichoke growing in California is generally traced to Italian immigrant families working the coastal fields around Half Moon Bay and, later, Castroville, which built its identity on the crop. In Italy itself the plant was old news, a Mediterranean thistle domesticated centuries earlier and long a staple of Roman and Ligurian cooking, where whole artichokes stuffed at the crown and cooked upright in a covered pan are a standard treatment. The claim that it is "adapted for convalescents" reflects a period habit of recommending vegetables on digestive grounds; artichokes were widely credited with benefiting the liver, an idea that survives today in the bitter artichoke amari.