Italian Stuffed Artichokes
These Italian stuffed artichokes are filled with ricotta cheese, breadcrumbs, and herbs, then roasted to bring out the flavor. They make for a great side dish or appetizer!
Ingredients
- 1 cup of ricotta cheese
- ⅓ cup + 4 tablespoons Italian breadcrumbs divided
- 2 cloves of garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon of dried parsley
- ½ teaspoon of sea salt
- ½ teaspoon of pepper
- 2 artichokes
- 1 lemon
- extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Heat oven to 400°F.
- Mix the ricotta, breadcrumbs, garlic, parsley, salt, pepper and a small squeeze of lemon juice. Set aside.
- Cut off the bottom stem of the artichoke so that it is flat. Peel off the hard outer leaves, about 2 layers. Cut 1 ½ inches from the top of the artichoke and slice in half vertically, and immediately squeeze some lemon juice on the exposed part to prevent browning. Then, use kitchen shears to cut horizontally above the fuzzy part. Pull out the inner portion of the artichoke with pointed tips.
- Using a spoon, insert it just below where the fuzzy choke part begins and force it back into the artichoke. Keep doing this until you have created a horizontal line across the artichoke. Then gripping your spoon round side up with your thumb and index finger, scrape out the fuzzy part starting with the furthest part away until all of the choke has been removed.
- Begin stuffing the ricotta-breadcrumb mixture into each leaf starting with the outer leaves, stuffing as far down as possible. After all leaves are stuffed, fill the cavity of the artichoke with the remaining ricotta mixture.
- Sprinkle the remaining breadcrumbs on top of the artichokes. Then drizzle olive oil over the bread crumbs and top side of the artichoke so that it gets into the artichoke. Bake for 45 minutes.