I’ve written a few times about my artichoke plant and the much-anticipated first harvest has finally arrived! I’ve now harvested 4 Purple of Romagna artichokes. The first one – the biggest one – I simply steamed and ate it with some butter. It was very delicious and tender.

I wanted to fry the other three artichokes and was debating what dish to serve with the fried artichokes. I was contemplating this conundrum one morning while drinking my coffee and watching Food Network, when Giada came on. She was making artichoke risotto. And from there, the dinner menu was finalized.

I followed Giada’s artichoke risotto recipe almost to a tee. The main difference is I did not add artichoke hearts to the risotto. Instead I topped the risotto dish with fried artichokes. Also, while I had the oil heated to fry the artichokes, I decided to fry up some prosciutto and added it to the risotto. The dish was lovely. The fresh herbs in the risotto were great; it brightened up the dish and reminded me of spring. And I really liked the addition of the fried artichoke and prosciutto; they added a nice crunch and the fried artichoke was straight-up delicious.

And don’t you love how the artichoke looks like a flower?!?! Everything about this dish just screams spring!

If you are interested in frying up some artichokes, below is a quick recipe. They are a great garnish to a dish but also would be delicious on their own.

Fried Artichoke Recipe

Ingredients
Artichokes
Oil for frying (I used canola oil)
Lemon

Directions

1. First prep the artichokes. Remove the tough, outer leaves and trim off the top of the artichoke so there are no spikes on top and only the meaty part of the artichoke petals remain. Also use a vegetable peeler to peel away the outer layer of the stem.
2. Put the prepared artichokes in a bowl of lemon water to keep them from browning while you heat the oil.
3. Add enough oil to a saucepan so that the artichokes will be submerged once added. Once the oil is heated to 285-300°C, dry the artichokes completely and drop them in the oil. Fry the artichokes until they are just cooked through (about 10 minutes).
4. Skim out the artichokes and set them aside on some paper towels. Once they are cool enough to handle, open up the artichoke petals so that they look like flowers.
5. Raise the heat on the saucepan so that the oil reaches 350°C. Drop the artichokes in to fry them a second time until they are just browned (about 1-2 minutes).
6. Skim out the artichokes and set them aside on some paper towels. Salt and serve.

p.s. – If you are interested, here are the past posts where I mention the progress of my artichoke plant:
Artichoke, March 2017
Artichoke, February 2017
Artichoke, June 2016