A soft and tasty side dish, artichokes and potatoes in a pan is a simple and sure-to-succeed recipe, perfect for accompanying a wide range of main dishes, from roast meat to grilled meat and scallops, even eggs. The whole artichokes, seasoned with parsley, mint, and garlic, become tender and flavorful thanks to slow cooking in the pot, while the potatoes, stewed together with the artichokes, absorb their flavor, resulting in a particularly delicious taste. Cooking artichokes and potatoes in a pan is very easy and requires only a few simple tricks: the first is definitely to clean the artichokes very well, carefully removing the toughest leaves (here you will find a useful tutorial); you also need to keep the cooking base moist enough: as in the recipe for Roman-style artichokes or stuffed artichokes, it is essential to have a good amount of steam inside the pot to ensure even cooking. A practical trick is to place the artichokes upside down not directly on the bottom of the pot, but on top of the potatoes and stems. This way, you avoid over-roasting the leaves, ensuring a perfect result.
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- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Cheap
- Preparation time: 15 Minutes
- Portions: 4 people
- Cooking methods: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Winter, Spring
Ingredients for preparing artichokes and potatoes in a pan
- 4 globe artichokes
- 14 oz potatoes
- 1 cup vegetable broth
- 1 bunch parsley (chopped)
- 8 leaves mint
- to taste salt
- to taste pepper
- 4 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
- 1 lemon (for cleaning the artichokes)
Tools
- 1 Cutting board
- 1 Knife
- 1 Corer
- 1 Bowl
- 1 Pan 9.5-inch diameter with lid
How to prepare stewed artichokes and potatoes
To prepare artichokes and potatoes in a pan, start by peeling the potatoes. Then cut them into not too thick wedges (1). Set them aside and move on to the artichokes: cut the stems near the base. Then clean the artichokes and stems as indicated in this tutorial. As you clean them, place them in water and lemon juice to prevent browning. Then take the heads of the artichokes and season them with salt, pepper, mint, and chopped parsley, allowing the seasoning to penetrate even inside the artichokes themselves (2).
Pour the oil on the bottom of a pan and arrange the peeled garlic clove, potatoes, and artichoke stems (3). Then place the artichokes upside down, ensuring they rest on the potatoes or artichoke stems (4).
Place the pan on the low heat, and as soon as the oil starts to sizzle, pour about 1 cup of hot vegetable broth (5). Cover the pan with a lid (6) and let the artichokes and potatoes stew on low heat for 35-40 minutes without turning them.
After 20-25 minutes, check that the cooking base has not dried out excessively: if that is the case, add a bit more broth or hot water. After 35 minutes, check that the artichokes are cooked (7): they should be tender both at the base and on the leaves. Continue cooking with the pan uncovered for one or two minutes, just enough time to slightly evaporate the cooking base if it is still very watery (8).
You can serve artichokes and potatoes in a pan either hot or at room temperature, after removing the garlic clove, generously drizzled with their cooking base. They can be a great side dish and, in double quantities, also a good vegetarian main course.
Storage
You can store stewed artichokes and potatoes for about 3 days in the refrigerator, in a glass container.
Tips and Variations
For this recipe, I used globe artichokes, but if you have smaller artichokes, you can cook them the same way, reducing the cooking time by about 5 minutes.
If you don’t have vegetable broth, you can use plain water, always adding it very hot so as not to stop the cooking of the artichokes.
