Cardoon Gratin
Mar 25th, 2011 | By Hank Shaw | Category: Italian, Recipe, The Garden | Comments | 5 Comments |
Photo b Holly A. Heyser
This is what I do with my cardoons, which grow all over my yard, uncontrollably. If you’ve never heard of them, cardoons, Cynara cardunculus, are a relative of the artichoke – only you eat the stalk, not the flower. They taste like a cross between celery and artichoke heart, with a little bitterness thrown in for good measure. The texture is like burly celery.
I’ve grown cardoons since I moved to California six years ago — or, more accurately, cardoons have taken hold of my garden ever since I planted that first one. If you let them bloom, a cardoon is a majestic plant with a flower stalk that can grow 10 feet tall. Once those flowers fade, they send out hundreds of seeds on parachutes that fly all over your yard.
This is a good thing. I let a few live each year, and those that are settled in the garden are perennial. I get two crops, one in spring and one in fall. The spring one is better, as the stalks are less bitter then.
Actually eating these giant thistles can be a bit of work. I learned my method for prepping the cardoons from Paula Wolfert in her Mediterranean Grains and Greens, a hard-to-find yet excellent book. If you can get this book, you will not be disappointed. In it, Wolfert goes into some of the deepest lore on unusual grains and plants eaten in the region. Fascinating.
Photo by Holly A. Heyser
CARDOON GRATIN
You need a huge cardoon to feed four, as you cut away the tops of the plant and pick off the outer ring of stalks, which are always punky and bitter. Look for stalks with a white bloom on them that comes off when you rub it with your fingers. In stores, cardoons are typically pre-cut and trimmed, so you can use whatever you buy.
Serves 4-6.
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 90 minutes
- Stalks from 1 large cardoon
- 2 lemons
- Salt
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons bacon fat or olive oil
- 1/2 cup coarsely grated provolone cheese or mozzarella
- 1/2 cup finely grated pecorino
- Freshly ground black pepper
Bring a large kettle of salty water to a boil and preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
While the water is heating, use your fingers to zip off the little strings on the ribs of the cardoon stalks. You don’t have to get them all, just do your best. Don’t dig too deep or you will break the stalk.
Juice one lemon and pour the juice into a large bowl of cold water. Chop the cardoon stalks into batons of whatever length you like; I like 2-inch batons. Put the cut cardoons into the lemon water to keep them from discoloring.
Toss the already squeezed lemon pieces into the boiling kettle, then whisk in the flour. Let this boil for a minute or two. The lemon-salt-flour combo affects the cardoons in some way that keeps them a pretty light green and removes some of the bitterness. (This is Wolfert’s trick.)
Toss in the cardoons and boil for 40 minutes.
Smear olive oil or bacon fat all over the inside of a casserole just large enough to hold the cardoon pieces in one layer. When the cardoons are done, arrange them in the casserole. Sprinkle over the mozzarella, then the pecorino. Bake for about 35 minutes, or until the cheese begins brown.
Serve with a wedge of lemon and freshly ground black pepper. Eat this with a malty beer or a shot of grappa or ouzo — it’s not a very wine-friendly dish.
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Even though cardoons are more labor intensive, and I’d decided too much work, your gratin is enticing me. BTW- made the porcini pasta and got an “AFP” from the hubby.
Hank – I take it that you do not wrap your cardoon in the garden to blanch them? I had heard about the flour in the water trick but I thought it was just to prevent oxidation… if that also removes bitterness maybe I do not nee to wrap my plants in the fall – the only time when I can eat fresh cardoon here in the Northern Virginia Piedmont. Unlike you I have to pamper my plants to get a crop, they sure aren’t perennial here, and the climate doesn’t give them a chance to produce a flower. So I don’t get my traditional cardoon grating for Chrismas Eve dinner, but at least it is on the Thanksgiving table.
We planted a cardoon in our yard this year in Texas. I find them a little odd texturely, but my boyfriend loves them. Are you saying its going to take over?
Finally a recipe for the majestic but often ignored Cardoon, well at least in the States. Cardoons are some of the most stunning plants in my garden, and I’ve always wanted to tap their culinary side. Thanks for the fine recipe.
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