raw artichoke salad

Artichokes are fiddly. Before you get to the deliciousness you have to deal with a lot of heavy armor, tearing, trimming and cutting your way past the green and purple leaves to the pale yellow heart.

I tend to forget this part of the equation when I am loading up at the market. When I blithely say to the vendor “Give me 8 – no 12! – artichokes please” I don’t actually picture myself sitting down to trim them all.Last week, rather than deal with my artichoke-filled fridge all at once, I took things one carciofo at at time. Because at time of year, when each artichoke is as big as baby’s head, it  takes  just one huge fat globe to be my lunch.

First I trim it of its outer leaves then slice the heart paper thin. Spread on a plate with a crumble of sheep’s milk cheese on top, all it takes is a swirl of olive oil to bring it to perfection.

And that was lunch. Every single day

Print

raw artichoke salad

Prep 10 mins

Total 10 mins

Author Elizabeth

Yield 1

Ingredients

• 1 large artichoke, trimmed and cut into thin slices
• crumbly semi fresh pecorino (or parmesan)
• extra virgin olive oil (or, if you can get it, Colonna Granverde)
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• lemon juice

Instructions

1. Once you’ve trimmed your artichokes cut the into paper thin slices and lay them on a plate. Quickly squeeze fresh lemon juice over them and toss, so that they don’t oxidize and turn brown. Crumble some cheese on top, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Notes

Most people don’t realize that you can eat artichokes raw. The trick is trimming off all of the tough outer leaves, and any prickly choke. (See this post for instructions.) This past week I’ve been testing out different oils, and have decided that this is the perfect use for Marina Colonna’s Granverde, which is like bright sun shiny lemon in a bottle.