Sicilian Citrus Artichokes

Summertime! Time to give voice to your inner Sicilian. And what is he asking for? Perhaps a fresh steamed artichoke anointed with a golden sauce made of olive oil, orange, tangerine and lemon.

So imagine you’re dining al fresco in a seaside trattoria in Palermo watching the fishermen rolling up their nets in the setting sun. The sail boats are bobbing on the white caps and you’re enjoying a glass of chilled Frascati while pretending to read your copy of Il Gattopardo in the absence of a badly needed dictionary. Everything is perfect until the waiter, noticing your reading material, begins a conversation in which you are completely unable to participate.

But not to worry! He has arrived bearing your ‘Carciofi ai Succhi.’ You spare yourself further humiliation by grabbing the dish and forthwith begin gobbling leaves and dribbling sauce and damn if it isn’t good! So good you breach protocol and stick your finger in the sauce boat and slurp it right off (the sauce not your finger although it’s a close thing). Yes, it is that good! The tang of the capers and anchovies with the sweetness of the citrus are all swirling in an unctuous suspension of olive oil. You even manage to soak up the dregs with your bread.

You’d think something this tasty would require time and effort but in fact it requires little of either. You may use small artichokes (pictured below) or larger ones and you can use whatever proportion of orange to tangerine you prefer.

The smaller specimens were intended for the final photographs but they all got eaten (!) and thus the monster mother of artichokes below got her shot at immortality. And yeah, she tasted good too.

So to recap the recipe directions below you just combine all the ingredients for the sauce in the pot, trim the stems a bit and let them slow boil to tenderness. Do it in batches if need be and if you need a little extra water feel free to add it in order to bring the level close to the top. When the chokes are done remove them to a platter, turn up the heat and let the sauce boil down to your preferred degree of thickness. I usually get a full cup out of this recipe using the proportions of liquid as outlined in the recipe below. When it’s done I let it cool off and check the flavor. Usually it wants a little salt and sugar or honey and it’s good to go.

You may have some sauce left over and you’ll find that it’s good with seafood. Use it on a pan fried or grilled filet of fish or do what I did below. Get some sweet little Key West pinks, sauté them in butter and garlic and use the sauce for dipping.

So there you have it. Sicilian style artichokes ready for dipping in the essence of citrus and the sea.