Carciofi alla Romana

Carciofi alla romana is a classic of Roman and Lazio home cooking, built on the local round artichoke of the coastal plain — the variety sold since 2002 under the protected name Carciofo Romanesco del Lazio IGP, and known locally as mammola or cimarolo, the prized first bud that ripens earliest at the top of the plant. Artichokes have been a Roman staple for centuries; the city's two great preparations are this braised, herb-stuffed «alla romana» and the deep-fried «alla giudia» of the Jewish ghetto, the latter documented since the late 1500s. The seasoning with mentuccia, a wild Roman mint, is what marks the dish as specifically Roman.

A whole artichoke cooked until a knife slips through it, the heart and inner leaves soft enough to eat with a spoon, the flesh sweet and faintly nutty. Inside, the green herb paste perfumes everything with garlic, grassy parsley and the cool, oregano-like edge of mentuccia, all carried by good olive oil. It is eaten warm or at room temperature, and the oil-and-cooking-juices left in the pan are mopped up with bread. A good one is silky and never bitter; an under-trimmed artichoke keeps the hairy choke and tough leaf-tips and turns fibrous and sharp.

Cleaning is half the dish: the fibrous outer leaves, the spiny tips and the hairy inner choke must be pared away, and the cut artichoke is held in lemon water, because cut artichoke flesh browns fast as its phenolic compounds oxidise on contact with air. Cooked stem-up and packed tight in the pan, the artichokes sit in only a shallow bath of oil and water and cook by a mix of simmering and steaming under a lid, which softens them gently and evenly without frying or browning. The long, slow heat breaks down the tough cell walls to tenderness, while the closed pot traps the steam and lets the garlic and mint perfume the flesh from the inside.