Carciofi alla Giudia- Roman Deep Fried Artichokes

These Roman-Jewish fried artichokes have an addictive crunchiness, with a tender and soft meat in the centre that’s absolutely wonderful with a sprinkle of Maldon Salt. In Italy, the artichokes used for this dish are typically the giant round ones called Mammole or Violet artichokes can be used as well.

Ingredients for 4 deep fried artichokes

• 4 Mammole artichokes

• Vegetable or sunflower oil

• Maldon Sea Salt 

Method: 

• Start by peeling back the outer leaves of the artichoke one by one until you have peeled back about 4-5 layers and discard. The leaves left should be paler in color and more tender. 

• Cut the stem of the artichoke so that you have about 2 cm remaining still attached to the artichoke. 

• Use a small knife to peel back the stem of the artichoke around the inner circle, going all the way up so that you get rid of any fibers left from peeling the leaves. 

• Cut off the top two thirds of the artichoke leaves as they are too tough to eat. 

• Use a teaspoon to scrape out the choke (small hairs) at the center of the artichoke. 

• Hold your artichoke upside down and smash them gently on the counter a few times so that the leaves open up. 

• If you are preparing these in advance, you can put them in a bowl of water with a lemon squeezed in to prevent them from oxidizing. Make sure you dry them very well before frying to avoid spitting. 

• When ready to eat, heat the frying oil in a pot deep enough to submerge the artichoke half way. Approx 15cm. Fill the pot 2/3rds of the way up and heat until it spits when you add a drop of water. 

• Fry the artichokes, leave first 1 or 2 at a time depending on the size of your pot. Leave to cook leaves in until they are deep gold and crispy. You don’t want your oil to be too hot, it should just be sizzling. 

• Turn over and fry the other way until they are crispy and gold all over

• Drain onto a paper towel and season with Salt. Serve immediately.

Claire’s famous 5-hour slow cooked Beef Ragu Recipe

We are very lucky and grateful for the successful year we have had since opening our new cooking school and I think we can safely say we owe a lot of that success thanks to Claire’s incredible Ragu recipe which has been thoroughly enjoyed by many of you over the last year in our kitchen. After many many requests, we finally forced Claire to write down the recipe and here it is –

Ragu recipe 

Serves 10-12 generously

400gr Beef Shin, in 2cm cubes

600gr Beef Short Rib, cut off the bone and in 2cm cubes. Keep the bones

350gr Carrots, peeled and in 2cm cubes

350gr Onions peeled and in 2cm cubes

200gr Celery, in 2cm cubes

500ml Red wine, nothing fancy needed, just a dry red 

500ml Full Fat Milk (makes the Ragu creamy and balances the acidity of the tomato and wine)

500ml Tomato Passata (recommend the plain Mutti one)

1 Large Parmesan Rind if you have it

Salt, Pepper and Olive oil

Method

1. Season all the meat with salt and pepper. 

2. Heat some olive oil in a large pot (big enough to fit all your ingredients) and brown the meat in batches until nicely seared.

3. Whilst the meat is browning, blitz all the vegetables in a food processor until they are bread crumb size. 

4. Once all the meat is seared, return it to the pot with all the vegetables, season with salt and cook covered for 20-30 minutes, stirring every so often until the vegetables are soft. 

5. Add the wine, passata, milk, short rib bones and parmesan and leave to cook covered, stirring every so often. This will need to cook for at least 4-5 hours, until the meat falls apart. 

6. As it’s cooking, taste the sauce and add milk, wine or passata as necessary. If it’s too acidic add more milk, if it’s missing a bit of flavor add more wine and tomato. 

7. Once the meat is tender, reduce the liquid down until you have the consistency of ragu. 

8. Once cooked, I let the ragu cool down completely and then I pull the meat apart and get rid of any gelatinous/ nervy bits. This step is not essential but does make it better. 

9. When you are ready to serve, heat the ragu whilst your pasta is boiling. 

10. Add the pasta, when cooked with a good handful of grated parmesan and some pasta water. 

11. Mix well and serve immediately. 

Family Secrets

• You can swap the beef for duck legs, wild boar, pork or venison shoulder.

• This recipe takes a long time to cook, so we recommend making a big batch and freezing.

• As with any Stew, this will taste even better after spending two days in the fridge.