Carciofi alla romana

The Roman spring dish, and the one that separates people who are comfortable with an artichoke from people who are not. Braised stem upward in oil and water, stuffed with garlic and mentuccia, and cooked until a knife goes through the stem without resistance.

Not to be confused with carciofi alla giudia, which is the Roman Jewish dish and is deep fried flat. Different technique, different result, same city.

Ingredients

Serves 4.

	Metric	Imperial
Globe artichokes, preferably romanesco	4	4
Mentuccia, chopped	2 tbsp	2 tbsp
Garlic, chopped fine	2 cloves	2 cloves
Olive oil	100 ml	3.5 fl oz
Water or white wine	150 ml	5 fl oz
Lemon	1, for the water	1, for the water

Mentuccia is a wild mint, close to what is sold elsewhere as calamint or lesser calamint. It is not garden mint and it is not parsley, and it is what makes the dish taste Roman rather than merely braised.

Method

1. Fill a bowl with water and squeeze in the lemon. Cut artichokes brown fast.
2. Trim hard. Snap off the outer leaves until what remains is pale yellow at the base. Cut across the top third and discard it. Pare the stem down to the pale core, leaving it long, and rub every cut surface with lemon.
3. Open the centre with your thumbs and scrape out the choke if there is one. Young romaneschi often have none.
4. Mix the garlic and mentuccia with salt and push it into the centre and between the leaves.
5. Stand the artichokes stem upward in a pan just wide enough to hold them touching. Pour over the oil, then the water, so they sit in about 3 cm of liquid.
6. Cover, bring to a simmer, and cook 25 to 40 minutes depending on size. Test the stem with a knife tip; it should meet no resistance.
7. Serve warm or at room temperature, with the pan juices spooned over.

What goes wrong

They are woody at the base. Not trimmed far enough. The instinct is to save leaves and the instinct is wrong: anything with a fibrous edge stays fibrous however long it cooks.

They turn grey-brown. Left in air after cutting. Lemon water is not optional and neither is rubbing the cut faces.

They are bitter. The choke was left in a mature artichoke. Young ones do not need scraping; older ones absolutely do.

They fall apart. Too much liquid and too hard a boil. This is a braise, not a poach: the tops should steam rather than swim.

Why it works

Standing them stem upward means the dense base sits in the liquid and the leaves cook in steam above it, so the two parts finish at the same time. The oil and water make a loose emulsion under the lid that bastes the leaves continuously. Artichoke fibre needs sustained moist heat rather than high heat, which is why this cannot be hurried.

At the table

Spring, and only spring. The Roman artichoke season runs from about February to April, and a menu offering them in October is offering something from a jar.

The variety matters and has a name: the cimarolo, also called the mammola, round and purple-tinged and without a choke worth removing. It is grown around Rome and it is what the dish is built for.

They are eaten warm or at room temperature, as an antipasto or a contorno, and whole, with a knife and fork, working outward. The stem is the best part and is served attached for that reason.

Rome has two artichoke dishes and confusing them is the standard visitor error. Alla romana is this one: braised, upright, green, soft. Alla giudia is the Jewish quarter's version: pressed flat, deep fried twice, the leaves crisp enough to shatter. They share a vegetable and nothing else.

Both appear at the same tables in the same weeks, and it is entirely normal to order one of each.

What an Italian would say

That it is mentuccia and not mint. That the stem is the best part and throwing it away is the mark of someone who has not been taught. And that romanesco artichokes are in season from roughly February to April and that the dish is worth waiting for rather than making with whatever is in the shop in August.