Grilled artichokes
Creamy mozzarella & bashed-up pistachios
30 mins plus heating
Not Too Tricky
serves 4
About the recipe
Grilling vegetables is a fantastic way to boost their flavour, without much effort at all. Here, I’m charring artichokes over a dry heat until gnarly, before tossing them in a lemony dressing and tearing over milky mozzarella. Fragrant, soft, tender, surprising and utterly delicious – this is the kind of food that makes me happy.
Ingredients
1 lemon
6 small artichokes
a few sprigs of fresh thyme, ideally flowering
extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons runny honey, plus extra to serve (optional)
125g baby mozzarella balls
30g shelled unsalted pistachios
Top Tip
HOW TO PREHEAT A CHARCOAL BARBECUE
Remove the cooking grill and carefully tip in hot coals on either side of the barbecue to create two heat walls – this will give you a hot direct heat on the sides and a cooler indirect heat in the middle. This ensures you will get consistent heat throughout and you will be able to control the temperature and cooking more easily.
HELPFUL HINT
Get yourself a chimney barbecue starter or barbecue flume to prelight your coals, it's a much quicker and efficient way to get (and keep) your coals hot.
Method
- Preheat your barbecue (see tip).
- Halve the lemon – every time you cut the artichoke, you’ll need to rub the cuts with lemon juice to stop it from going black on the barbecue.
- One artichoke at a time, click off and discard the outer leaves until you get to the paler ones that are more tender to eat.
- Trim the top ⅓ off the artichoke heads and rub the exposed cut with the lemon half. Trim the stalk, then use a speed-peeler to peel the remaining stalk, revealing the soft flesh underneath, then rub all over with lemon. Halve the artichokes through the stem, carefully scoop out and discard the hairy choke from the centre, rubbing the cut with lemon, then grill for 10 minutes, or until tender, turning occasionally.
- Strip the thyme leaves into a pestle and mortar and pound together, then squeeze in the juice from the remaining lemon half and muddle in 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, along with the honey. Taste, then season to perfection with sea salt and black pepper and transfer to a large bowl with the artichokes, tossing until well coated.
- Lay half of the artichokes onto a serving platter, tear over half of the mozzarella, then repeat with a second layer of artichokes, followed by the remaining mozzarella, then finally spoon over the dressing from the bowl.
- To serve, bash up and scatter over the pistachios, pick over any thyme flowers, if you have them, and finish with a drizzle of honey, if you like.