TASTEscape: Rome

Information

Course: Starter 
Difficulty: Easy 
Serves: 4 
Time: 1hr 30mins

Ingredients

• 4 Romanesco artichokes 
• 1 lemon, juiced, and another to serve 
• 50ml of white wine, to sprinkle 
• 1.5l oil, flavourless 
• salt 
• pepper

Recipe

1. Clean the artichokes by cutting away the tough outer leaves until you get to softer internal ones. With a curved paring knife, carefully cut off the purple part of each leaf 
2. The artichoke will have a round shape, like a rose. Peel off the outer skin of the artichoke stems and carefully tidy up the bases 
3. Immerse the artichokes in a clean acidulated water, made of 1l of water and the juice of 1 lemon, for at least 10 minutes 
4. Remove the artichokes from the water, drain and dry thoroughly. Beat them against one another so that the leaves start to open 
5. In a deep pan, heat the oil to 140–150°C 
6. Immerse the artichokes in the hot oil and allow to fry for 10 minutes. To check if they are cooked, just pierce the base of the artichokes with a fork – if the fork penetrates the artichoke, it is done 
7. Remove the artichokes from the oil and leave them to cool upside down on a tray for 15 minutes to drain the excess oil. With a fork, open the leaves from the inside to get the shape of a fully bloomed rose 
8. Season with salt and plenty of freshly ground pepper and allow the artichokes to rest for a few minutes 
9. Sprinkle the artichokes with white wine. Reheat the oil, raising the temperature slightly this time to 180°C, and dip the artichokes back into the hot oil for 1–2 minutes only. Remove artichokes and drain cut-side down on kitchen paper 
10. Serve the artichokes piping hot with lemon wedges on the side