Artichoke Gratinata

 

My friends, did you know that there is a way to make an artichoke taste more…

like an artichoke? I mean, to bring out its artichoke essence and let it sit on your tongue, making your taste buds explode with artichoke-ness?

(If you don’t like artichokes you might want to click out.)

I have such a weakness for these strange little vegetables. When there is a dish on a restaurant menu that has even a hint of artichoke in it, that’s pretty much what I am going to order. Almost every time. I love love artichokes. Dip, soup, pasta, straight up. All good.

So a few years back when I was looking for artichoke bottoms for our previous Easter tradition of filling artichoke bottoms with petit pois, or little baby peas, which is a really cute and very spring-y dish, I couldn’t find any artichoke bottoms. I searched for an artichoke recipe to replace that on our menu (for the record I haven’t seen artichoke bottoms since, maybe they stopped selling them?). I stumbled upon this recipe from Giada De Laurentiis for Artichoke Gratinata – an Italian version of the French Gratin which you probably figured out – and never looked back because, yum.

This recipe is sort of like a meditation in which you contemplate how many delicious things can I add to the artichoke to make it even better? Olive oil? Garlic and Parsley? Ok.

 

How about wine? Marsala sounds good! (I bet white would be good too!)

And chicken broth and red pepper flakes. Good. To top it off, how about parmesan, bread crumbs and butter?

Are we good? Have we covered the universe of delicious steps to do to food? Barring chocolate, I think so.

I hope you try this for a holiday or special dinner soon, you will thank me, I promise it will be in heavy rotation after because holy goodness. A revelation. This is why I love food.

Artichoke Gratinata (printer version here on Food Network): 

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
1 pound frozen artichoke hearts, thawed
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup Marsala wine
2 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup plain bread crumbs
1/3 cup grated Parmesan
Directions:

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

Warm the olive oil in a heavy bottom skillet over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the artichoke hearts, parsley, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes and cook until the artichoke hearts are starting to brown at the edges, about 3 minutes. Add the chicken broth and wine and simmer for 3 minutes. Transfer the artichoke mixture to a 2-quart baking dish.

Melt the butter in the same skillet used to cook the artichokes. In a small bowl mix the melted butter with the bread crumbs. Stir in the Parmesan and top the artichokes with the bread crumbs. Bake until the top is golden, about 10 minutes.

Recipe courtesy of Giada De Laurentiis