Meghan Birnbaum has been sharing food as @meghanitup since March 2020, when her newly remodeled kitchen provided the perfect backdrop for showcasing recipes. Many of these dishes and desserts were inspired by her Palermo-born grandmother's culinary creations. Meghan's favorite? Stuffed artichokes (carciofi ripieni).
"They were a meal, and we each got one, except my dad and I would share one," she remembers. "He would always give me the heart; it's so symbolic. He gave me his heart, and that's the best part."
Through her "Authentic Sicilian Stuffed Artichokes" recipe, Meghan hopes to share the love. We recently chatted about her rendition of this traditional dish, sourcing ingredients, selecting and preparing artichokes, the best way to cook these vegetables, and more.
Tell us about your grandmother and how she inspired this recipe.
My grandma came through Ellis Island with her dad and her mom and then moved to St. Louis. She had two sisters and a brother. Her brother went to World War II and didn't come home; it was just her and her sisters. They each bought a house, and the backyards all backed up into each other's, so they essentially shared a yard.
My grandpa was a sheet metal worker, and my grandma was the cook of the family. She had four kids. She didn't know how to drive. She never had a job. She just took care of the family.
She watched me as a kid while my parents were working. My grandma didn't write down any of her recipes, so I am recreating everything my family and I remember based on taste, smell, and feel. It took me a while to get this recipe down.
Peak artichoke season is June through September, but supermarkets carry them year-round.
How do you source your ingredients?
Living in Southern California has many advantages. We have many great farmers markets, and then we have Eataly. That's obviously not available to everybody, but I mean, there are a lot of stores; even in St. Louis, where I grew up, there's a little meat market called Mannino's. It's an Italian market, and you just start talking to people about their connection to Italy. They'll tell you, "These are the best breadcrumbs" or "This is the best bread."
How do you select artichokes?
You're going to want a big, round artichoke. And if the leaves have kind of moved away from the center, it's going to be even easier to make. The tighter and the smaller, the harder it is to prep and stuff. The bigger and more bloomed, the easier it'll be to do that.
Trimmed artichokes photo by Meghan Birnbaum
Walk us through how you prepare the artichokes for cooking.
Having the right tools is really important. When I prepare artichokes, I use three different kinds of knives and a peeler. You also have to trim the leaves, so I use scissors.
I use a pretty big knife to cut the top off. You want a sharp, heavy-duty knife. It's pretty tough to get through, and it's not stable because the artichoke is round and on its side. You want to have something that can cut through pretty well. Then, I use a paring knife to cut the bottom and a peeler to thin out the skin on the stem.
I recommend a bucket or a bowl of water with lemon juice in it to prevent the artichokes from browning. The artichokes will brown regardless of what you do, but this minimizes that.
It's kind of labor intensive, but I feel like I've gotten it down and find it very therapeutic. The more you do it, the easier it becomes. But preparing the artichoke is definitely the hardest part because of how many steps and tools you need just to get it done.
That gets rid of all the prickly parts except for the heart, which is difficult to reach. If somebody tells you to remove the heart and the center of the artichoke before it's cooked, I don't know if they've done that before because it's really impossible. You should steam it for 10 to 15 minutes before you use a spoon to remove those parts.
Breadcrumbs make this recipe Sicilian. Photo by Meghan Birnbaum.
Do you have any tips for preparing the artichoke stuffing?
It's truly just garlic in olive oil until you can smell it, and then I put in the breadcrumbs. It has to be on a medium to low heat, and you cannot walk away. You need to just constantly stir. The second you see color on those breadcrumbs, you kill the heat and keep stirring. It's going to keep browning.
Add two inches of water to the pan. Photo by Meghan Birnbaum.
What's the best way to cook stuffed artichokes?
My favorite is just steaming them, and I've done it a few different ways. Sometimes, when I steam them, the water rises too high and kind of goes over the top, so the breadcrumbs on the top become mushy, which is fine. It's mushy on the inside, too, and that's a good texture. So if one batch boils over and it gets mushy, I'm still going to enjoy it. But I love it when I steam it just enough that it doesn't get to the top, and the top is still brown and crispy. When it's gotten mushy on top, I put it in the oven afterward to crisp it, but it's kind of a lost cause at that point if there's too much water on the top of the breadcrumbs.
I have baked before. That was a more fool-proof method. If you want to make sure you just get crispiness on it, you just put a little water into the pan, and then it'll steam and bake at the same time.
What do you hope people will take away from this recipe?
It's an intimidating recipe, but it's also one that you just don't find in restaurants. So I hope that people will feel encouraged to make this and know that they can make traditional recipes that are not restaurant recipes but rather home recipes.
It uses fresh, homegrown ingredients with very Mediterranean vibes. Homemade bread does not go to waste because you're grinding it into breadcrumbs. You're also really utilizing the harvest of the olives and the olive oil. It is like a little Mediterranean treat using what the resources and the produce available have to offer.
>>Get Meghan's full stuffed artichokes recipe here!<<
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