nonna’s stuffed artichokes

Prep time: 30 mins
cook time: 2 hours

A SPRING TIME SPECIAL WHEN NONNA’S GARDEN WOULD FLORISH with ARTICHOKES (CARCIOFILI)

ingredients

STUFFING & ARTICHOKES:

• 5-6 artichokes

• 500G beef mince

• 500G BREAD CRUMBS

• 500G PARMASEN

• handful of PARSely

• 2 eggs

• 1/4 Spring onion

• 3 cloves of garlic

• 1 red onion

• 2 TSP SALT

SAUCE

• 400g crushed tomatoes

• 700G passata

• salt to taste

• handful of basil

METHOD

artichoke preparation

with gloves on, remove and pull the stems off the artichokes. remove the outer layer of leaves as they tend to be dirty. slice off the top 1cm of the artichokes. then wash thoroughly within each layer in warm water. repeat the process for each artichokes.

sauce preparation

heat the saucepan then add red onion and psring onion until soft. then add 1 can of crushed tomatoes with on bottle of sauce. add half a cup of water to the saucepan, bring to a boil then let simmer for at least 25 minutes.

stuffing preparation

whilst the sauce is simmering, in a separate bowl add the breadcrumbs, chooped parsley, parmesan, minced beef, eggs, salt and crushed garlic. NONNA WOULD ALSO DICE UP THE STEMS OF THE ARTICHOKES TO ENSURE THE STUFFING HAD THE FLAVOUR OF THE ARTICHOKES THROUGH IT. mix thoroughly. the mixture should be crumbly and not too wet.

gently open the layers of the artichokes to stuff the mixture in between each leaf packing it down to fill the gaps. repeat for each artichoke.

COOKING

place each artichoke into the saucpan constantly scooping sauce over the top set into the stuffing. let cook in the lightly simmering sauce for roughly 2 hours if the artichoke are large. if small, 90 minutes in the sauce will be enough to cook through on a low heat.

WE LIKE TO SERVE WITH OUR PASTA OF CHOICE AND ENJOY!