Frittata with artichokes – Frittata con i carciofi - Fritaja s artičokama

When I decided to cook my very first artichokes I was little scared. I didn’t know how to start cleaning these so big and so dangerous vegetables. My first artichokes were the Sardinian artichokes with so sharp thorns that can terrible hurt your fingers! So I spent my first half an hour for cleaning just four artichokes and then I do it again and again and it became so natural to me. Now I need less time to do it, but I’m still very careful when I do it, especially until I cut the thorns from the leaves and the petals.

Here are some advices for the beginners:
When buying artichokes choose the ones with the petals well closed, this is the sign that artichokes are fresh. The stem should be long and wide, so you can use it, because it’s edible too.
To avoid hurting yourself, start with Romanesco artichokes that have no thorns.
Before you start cleaning the artichokes prepare the large bowl with cold water and 2 -3 tablespoons of lemon juice or vinegar. Put cleaned and peeled artichokes into the water to avoid that the vegetable oxidize.

Use gloves if you don’t want to get your hands dyed.
Cut of the stem about 1cm under the globe and peel it with the knife. Put the pieces into the water.
Remove the external petals and peel the globe with the knife until you remove all hard parts of the globe. Cut it into two halves and remove the internal hair and thinly petals, because they can also have some small thorns. If you need entire artichokes, gently open the petals and remove the hair and central petals with the teaspoon. Fresh artichokes should have very short hair or even no hair at all. Put clean artichokes into the water.

It will take more time to clean the artichokes, then to cook them. This is incredible, but it’s true! These big vegetables are so delicate and tender inside!