Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking - Marcella Hazan [215]
4. Add ¼ cup water, adjust heat to cook at a steady, but gentle simmer, and cover tightly. Cook until both the potatoes and artichokes feel tender when prodded with a fork, approximately 40 minutes, depending mostly on the potatoes. While cooking, add 2 or 3 tablespoons of water if you find that there is not enough liquid in the pot. Taste and correct for salt before serving.
Ahead-of-time note The note at the end of Braised Artichokes and Peas is applicable here.
La Frittedda—Smothered Artichokes, Fava Beans, and Peas with Fennel, Palermo Style
FOR JUST SIX WEEKS in spring, between April and May, Sicilian cooks find vegetables young enough to make frittedda. Youth and freshness are the ideal components of this heavenly dish, the freshness of just-picked young artichokes, fava beans, and peas. I have seen frittedda made in Palermo when the vegetables were so tender they were cooked in hardly more time than it took to stir them in the pot.
If you grow your own, or if you have access to a good farmers’ market, you can come very close to duplicating the gentle Sicilian flavor of this dish. But even if you must rely on produce from the average greengrocer, either limit yourself to the time of the year when the vegetables required here are at their youngest, or adopt the compromises suggested below, and enough of frittedda’s magic will come through to make it worth your while.
The aroma of fresh wild fennel is an important part of this preparation, as it is of many other Sicilian dishes. If the herb is not available to you, use fresh dill or ask your greengrocer to keep for you the leafy tops he usually cuts off the, finocchio.
For 6 servings
3 medium OR 5 small artichokes, very fresh, with no black spots or other discoloration
½ lemon
2 pounds fresh, small fava beans in their pods OR ⅔ of a 15-ounce can “green fave,” drained
1 pound fresh small peas in their pods OR ½ of a 10-ounce package choice quality, frozen small peas, thawed
1 cup fresh wild fennel OR 1½ cups leafy finocchio tops OR ⅔ cup fresh dill
1½ cups sweet raw onion sliced very thin (see note below)
⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil Salt
Note Use the sweetest variety of onion available: Vidalia, Maui, or Bermuda. If you can obtain none of these, soak sliced yellow onion in several changes of cold water for 30 minutes, gently squeezing the onion in your hand each time you change the water; drain before using.
1. Cut the trimmed artichokes into ½-inch wedges, and trim, but do not split their stems. As you work, rub the cut artichokes with the lemon to keep them from turning black.
2. If using fresh fava beans, shell them and discard the pods.
3. If using fresh peas, shell them, and prepare some of the pods for cooking by stripping away their inner membrane. It’s not necessary to use all or even most of the pods, but the more you do, the sweeter the frittedda will taste.
4. Wash the wild fennel, finocchio tops, or dill in cold water, then chop into large pieces.
5. Choose a heavy-bottomed or enameled cast-iron pot just large enough to accommodate all the ingredients, put in the sliced onion and olive oil, turn on the heat to medium low, and cook until the onion becomes soft and translucent.
6. Put in the wild fennel, finocchio tops, or dill, the artichoke wedges and stems, stir thoroughly to coat well, and cover the pot tightly. After 5 minutes, check the artichokes. If they are at their prime, they should look moist and glossy, and the oil and the vapors from the onion and fennel should be sufficient to continue their cooking. But if they appear to be rather dry, add 3 tablespoons of water. If you are in doubt, add it anyway, it won’t do too much damage. When not checking the pot, keep it covered tightly.
7. If using fresh fava beans and peas: Add them when the artichokes are about half done, approximately 15 minutes if very young and fresh. Add 2 or 3 tablespoons water if you doubt that there is sufficient moisture in the pot to cook them.