Last week Jonathan went to the supermarket and came back with artichokes!

I L O V E artichokes, ever since I can remember, but Mom wasn’t such a fan, and the thing is… they are not THAT usual in Brazil, but thank God I have my Nona, and I could always found some artichokes she baked (or kept) specially for me, when visiting she and Nono!

Anyway, by that time I would never dream about cooking, and had never asked my Nona about how to bake my own artichokes! So when Jonathan came in, I had to make a little research, and after a short time I felt ready to prepare us some proper lunch!

The thing is: I wanted FULLY LOADED artichokes, as the ones my Nona used to prepare, so I kind of followed Mark Bittman’s tips about how to prepare an artichoke, BUT used the traditional filling from my Nona ( The original version for Jonathan and a Gluten Free interpretation for me, which happened to be delightful in a way even Jonathan had to admit! I mean: he is not bad with that, but it is really hard for him to find some GF version to taste even close, what about BETTER than the regular recipe… Fortunately, this was the case this time!).

To drink we had strawberry + basil Gin tonic! We have been testing a lot of combinations around here, and I may post about it pretty soon!

If you want to try the Artichoke, those are the instructions:

ARTICHOKE:

To prepare your artichokes, I advise you to watch Mark Bittman’s tutorial.

REGULAR FILLING:

1 cup of bread crumbs;

½ cup of Parmigiano (the best you can afford);

2 Table spoons of olive oil;

1 minced garlic clove .

GLUTEN FREE FILLING:

1 cup:  ½ roasted cassava (manioc) flour + ¼ nutritional Yeast + ¼ sunflower seeds;

½ cup of Parmigiano (the best you can afford);

2 Table spoons of olive oil;

1 minced garlic clove .

METHOD:

Mix your filling until you obtain a crumb: not so dry, but also not so wet… things have to stick together, but should not turn into a pastry!

Then, you have to do your best trying to fill every gap in between leaves with all the filling you can!

When your artichokes are fully loaded, you may place them in a large pan, and steam cook it for about 30 min. (steam cook meaning the old school way: as Nona used to do… don´t try to use a steam cooker! I used a large pan with 2 cm of water, and placed the artichokes higher than the water, simple as that!)

Uncomplicated, delightful Italian food!