Sautéed artichokes, Neapolitan-style
( Carciofi alla Napoletana )

Neapolitan sauteed artichoke recipe

Preparation and cooking

• - Prepare artichokes.
  Cut off the stalk close to the base. I suggest you to use a stainless steel knife.
  Remove all the outside leaves, that are always tough, until you have the central core of pale leaves.
  Trim every leaf to remove thorns and any brown edges.
  Cut artichokes into slices and dip them in water that you have acidulated before with lemon juice in order to prevent browning, until their cooking.
• - Prepare other ingredients.
  Clean, wash and chop parsley.
  Peel garlic.
  Stone and slice green olives.
  Wash capers very well to remove salt.
• - The cooking.
  Drain artichokes very well.
  Heat oil together with garlic in a flameproof casserole. Be careful not to brown garlic cloves too much.
  Turn off the stove, remove garlic and add artichokes slices.
  Turn on the stove again and let artichokes flavor on a high flame for a few minutes to dry, stirring often.
  At this point add capers, green olives and a glass of hot water.
  Season to taste with salt and pepper, reduce heat and continue cooking, half-covered, until well reduced. (Expected time: about 15 to 20 minutes)
  If necessary, add other hot water.
  When all cooking liquid is reduced, add parsley.
  Stir and turn off the stove.

Just before serving

• - Serve after some minutes.

Note

Tips

• - Remember: cooking time depends on your personal taste!
• - For a light and healthy recipe: don't brown artichokes and garlic. Add all ingredients except parsley and olive oil to the pan. In Italy we call it "cottura a freddo". Add parsley and olive oil once turned off the stove at the end of cooking.
• - If you don't like garlic, you can substitute it with fresh chives. In this case the first step is sauteing artichokes in olive oil and then add all other ingredients included chives. Or, if you prefer, follow the above recipe "cottura a freddo"
• - Be careful with the amount of salt: capers are already salty.
• - You can prepare artichokes, Neapolitan-style in advance.

Menu planning

• - Serve sautéed artichokes as side dish to accompany roast or grilled fish or meat. I like very much grilled lamb with this side dish.

Useful links for this recipe

• - Here's the page we dedicated to artichokes

Healthy eating

• - If you want to serve sautéed artichokes as side dish to accompany roast lamb I suggest to reduce the amount of olive oil. Keep in mind 100g (3 1/2 ounces) boneless lamb have 8.8g of fat without considering the seasoning to cook.

Loretta

What's the right wine for " Sautéed artichokes, Neapolitan-style "?

Please, don't match wine to artichokes :))