Wood-fire Oven Roasted Artichokes

As soon as it's artichoke season, this is a dish I frequently make when I'm firing the oven for making bread or pizza. It's a dish that is so very simple in both ingredients and technique you'll want to make it often.

After you've baked your bread, throw this dish in the oven for a quick accompaniment to your meal. The heat from the oven slightly caramelizes the outer leaves of the artichokes and the skins of the lemons.

You'll be amazed at how flavorful and sweet the artichokes taste cooked this way. The lemons and juices are used to make a dipping sauce.

Serves 4

Fire the oven to 450 degrees or so. Or let the oven cool down from a hotter bread bake. A little cooler or a bit hotter won't make a big difference in the results; just the length of roasting time. This is intuitive cooking! Push the pile of embers to left back of the oven.

2 medium -sized artichokes
Fine grind sea salt
Olive oil
2 Meyer or eureka lemons, cut into wedges or ¼ inch rounds

Remove a few of the outer leaves from the artichokes. Cut the artichokes in half and remove the choke.

Lightly salt the exposed surface with sea salt. Place the artichokes cut side down in a cast iron skillet.

Fill the skillet with ½ inch or so of olive oil and add water to bring the liquid level to about one inch.

Add the lemon pieces in between the artichokes.

Place the skillet in the oven about 5 inches from the embers.

Roast for about 12-15 minutes or until the artichoke hearts are tender.

Remove from the oven and place the skillet on a rack to cool slightly.

Use the juices from the roasting to:

• make a simple aioli to serve with the artichokes or
• make a simple dipping vinaigrette by whisking olive oil into the juices.

Mary Karlin © 2007

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