One of Baby Lady’s favorite foods, if not her favorite food, is artichokes. She adores them.

She is constantly looking for new things to do with artichokes. She uses artichoke hearts in pastas, sandwiches and salads. She uses the whole artichoke as the serving vessel for various salads. She loves, loves, loves steamed artichokes scented with a little garlic and lemon served with drawn butter. Whenever she sees artichokes she buys them. They really are wonderful. So it came as no surprise when we were shopping the other day that she bought 3 beautiful artichokes. Now that she had them she had to determine how she was going to prepare them. I have absolutely no idea what prompted her search for stuffed artichokes but she found this recipe at Saveur. It inspired her and she simply had to try it (with minor modification) with her beautiful artichokes. So, yesterday before she went to work, she informed me we were having artichokes for dinner, which was fine by me. I just assumed we would have beautifully steamed artichokes. Au contraire mon ami. Little did I envision what she had envisioned for the meal. When she got home, she showed me her recipe and it sound very intriguing and good. She did all the prep work and I helped here and there as needed. The resulting meal was remarkable. The garlic in the stuffing melted into the artichoke giving it a beautiful garlicky goodness. The breadcrumbs gave it body and the parmesan gave it texture. It was sooooo delicious I can’t wait to have it again. We served it with the Baba Ghannouj I made the night before. It was a stunningly beautiful Mediterranean meal. This is a recipe you really need to try.

Ingredients

• 3 large, full-size artichokes
• 1 lemon, halved
• 2 cups dried bread crumbs
• 1-1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1⁄2 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves
• 2 tsp. kosher salt
• 1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
• 8 cloves garlic, minced
• 5 tbsp. good quality olive oil

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425 F.

Using a serrated knife, cut off artichoke stems to create a flat bottom. Cut top thirds off artichokes, pull off tough outermost leaves, and trim tips of leaves with kitchen shears. Rub cut parts with lemon halves and set aside.

Next, in a large bowl, combine bread crumbs, 1 cup grated parmesan cheese, parsley, salt, pepper, and garlic.

Open artichoke leaves with your thumbs to make room for stuffing. Working with one artichoke at a time over bowl, sprinkle 1/3 of bread crumb mixture over the artichoke and work it in between leaves. Transfer stuffed artichoke to a shallow baking dish. Drizzle each artichoke with 1 tbsp. oil.

Pour boiling water into baking dish to a depth of 1 inch. Rub 1 tbsp. olive oil on a sheet of aluminum foil, cover artichokes with foil (oiled side down), and secure foil tightly around dish with kitchen twine. Bake at 425 F until a knife easily slides into the base of an artichoke, roughly 40 to 45 minutes. Remove from oven.

Sprinkle tops with remaining 1/4 cup parmesan cheese.

Turn on broiler and broil until the tops of artichokes are golden brown, roughly 3 minutes.

Serve and enjoy!