Carciofi in fricassea (Artichokes in egg and lemon sauce)

Frank14 March 2020sides/contorno37 Comments

Artichokes and eggs get along very nicely, don’t they? Artichokes are a classic filling for frittata and if you’ve ever tried it, you’ll know why. They’re delicious baked with egg or fried in egg batter. Or what about an egg, sunny side up, as a topping for braised artichokes? There are plenty of examples of this ideal pairing.

In this dish, baby artichokes cut into wedges and trifolati—sautéed in garlic and oil—and then napped with a creamy, tangy sauce of barely cooked egg yolks mixed with lemon juice and some grated cheese, a technique referred to in Italian cookery—rather confusingly for Anglophones—as fricassea.

It’s a tasty dish that sings of spring. Usually a side, and especially good with roasted lamb, I could also see carciofi in fricassea as an antipasto or even a light secondo as well.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

250g (1/2 lb) baby artichokes, trimmed and cut into wedges (see Notes)
2-3 cloves of garlic, finely minced
2-3 sprigs of fresh parsley, finely minced
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

For the egg and lemon sauce:

The juice of 1/2 lemon
2 egg yolks
1-2 Tbs grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

Trim the artichokes of their tough outer leaves and cut them into wedges. Place them in acidulated water. (See notes below for details.)

Mince the garlic and parsley together until you have a very fine near-paste. Gently sauté the garlic and parsley in olive oil in a stainless steel, enameled or terracotta skillet, then add the artichoke wedges, which you will have drained but not too well. Toss the artichokes in the seasoned oil for a few minutes, seasoning generously with salt and pepper.

Add a glassful of water (or if you’re in the mood, broth) to the skillet. Simmer uncovered over moderate heat until the liquid is nearly gone and the artichoke wedges perfectly tender. Add more liquid if it evaporates before the artichokes are done.

Whisk together egg yolks, lemon juice, grated cheese and tiny pinch of salt, along with a small pinch of minced parsley for color if you like.

Remove the skillet from the heat, then add the egg and lemon mixture to the skillet, mixing everything together so the artichokes are well covered. (Depending on how much residual heat is left in the pan, you may need to return the skillet to the burner over the gentlest heat possible.) Toss the artichoke wedges until the mixture has thickened into a creamy sauce. Take care not to scramble the egg.

Serve right away.

Notes on Carciofi in fricassea

In Italy you’d have a variety of small or medium sized artichokes you could use to carciofi in fricassea. Here in the States, we essentially limited to two varieties: the large ‘globe’ artichoke and the small ‘baby’ variety. It’s the latter you want for this dish, and actually any others where you cook the artichokes in wedges. Save large globe artichokes for dishes where the artichoke is served whole, such as carciofi alla giudia (Jewish style), carciofi alla romana (Roman style) or carciofi imbottiti (stuffed).

Carciofi in fricassea can also be made with frozen artichokes. They come pre-trimmed and cut into wedges. Very convenient with only a marginal loss in quality, in my opinion, over fresh artichokes. But for whatever reason they’re not easy to find these days.

Besides trimming the artichoke—for which, see the step-by-step instructions below—the only tricky part of making carciofi in fricassea is the final step. You want your artichoke wedges napped lightly with a creamy, tangy egg and lemon sauce. It’s a matter of balancing the heat: too little and your sauce will be too thin and runny. Too much and you risk scrambling the egg.

I generally try mixing the sauce off heat first. If you’re cooking with enameled cast iron or terracotta, it may well have retained enough residual heat to thicken the sauce nicely. If not, then put the pan back on the flame, but keep it as low as your stove will allow. Soon enough—usually within seconds in fact—the sauce should thicken up nicely. When it does, serve the dish up immediately to stop it cooking any further. But if your eggs do scramble, no matter. The taste will still be fine.

How to trim an artichoke

Trimming artichokes can be a bit of work, but baby artichokes are actually much easier to trim than the more common globe artichokes. Their leaves are much. more tender, and they generally don’t have that hairy choke in the center. To begin, take an untrimmed baby artichoke:

Start by removing its tough, dark green outer leaves until you’re down to the rather lighter green interior ones:

NB: I actually could have taken off one more layer…

Then cut off the top quarter to third of the artichoke, like so:

Then cut the trimmed artichoke into wedges:

Place the wedges as soon as they are cut in acidulated water. “Acidulated” just means that you’ve squeezed some lemon juice into the water, which stops the artichokes from darkening. I generally throw in the lemon half, too, for good measure:

A word to the wise; don’t use a carbon steel knife to trim and cut your artichokes or, for that matter, a carbon steel skillet to cook them in. The carbon steel will discolor the artichokes and (whatever you might read otherwise) lend them an unpleasant metallic taste. Don’t ask me how I know.

Making Carciofi in fricassea ahead

Carciofi in fricassea can be made ahead as far as the final step. Just gently reheat your braised artichokes, while you make the egg and lemon sauce. When the skillet is hot again, take it off the heat and add the sauce, proceeding from there.

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