Artichoke Festival: Artichoke Pie & Spiced Parmigiana Crisps

Artichoke Pie? Why not! A savory crust tops a pie full of sauteed artichokes, pancetta, garlic, and onions. See, it’s sounding pretty good, isn’t it?

You’ll need to make a pie crust, use your usual recipe or make a classic pate brisee type dough. True confession time: I cheat. I can buy very good quality, no funky ingredient pate brise in sheets. You could also make this with filo dough and it would be amazing!

For the filling, choose small to medium sized artichokes. Clean the artichoke, remove the hairy choke and cut into bite sized pieces. Blanch the artichokes in salted, acidulated water for 1-2 minutes. Drain and reserve.

Finely chop some pancetta, guanciale or bacon. Thinly slice some white onions, and it couldn’t hurt to throw in some tender spring onions as well. Finely chop a little bit of garlic.   Saute the onions until soft, then add the artichokes and saute them for a few minutes and add the garlic and cook for only a minute.

In a bowl, add the artichoke mixture, a good handful of grated parmigiana cheese and 2 small eggs. If you’ve drained off the pork fat, which I’d recommend, then add a good glug of olive oil to the mix.

We used individual crockery tart dishes, but you could also use one regular pie pan and serve this in slices. Line your pie or tart dish with the pie crust, fill with the artichoke filling and bake until bubbly and brown. 

I added a chili spiced parmigiana crisp to the finished dish, just because it was a good excuse to make some. 

To make the spiced parmigiana crisps:
Heat the oven to  375F/190.
Line a sheet pan with a silicon mat or parchment paper. In a small bowl combine grated parmigiana cheese (real parmigiana, the stuff in a can won’t work, it doesn’t melt properly), hot chili powder, smoked paprika and a few twists of fresh ground pepper.  Spoon a tablespoon of the cheese mixture onto the sheet pan and gently flatten the mound into a circle.
Place the pan in the oven and keep an eye on it because they’ll go from gorgeous brown to scorched in a nanosecond! 

Take the crisps out of the oven when they are bubbling and just turning brown. Let them cool for a few minutes before trying to move them off the sheet pan.

Very nice served al fresco with a green salad and a chilled rose.
Buon appetito!

Artichoke Festival Grand Finale: Sausage Stuffed Artichokes