Cooking Cardoons- Marisa’s Polpette

From emails I get from my blog readers and on FB, I see cardoons are getting easier to find in America. Cardoons are cousins with artichokes, looking more like celery, but tasting like artichoke hearts. What’s not to love? When I was at Paola’s,my ortolana (vegetable vendor), in town; she had huge fabulous long cardoons from her own garden so I had to buy them as they are my husband’s favorite!

When I saw these I had to have some.

One of the ways I learned to cook here, was while standing at the shop, where there is a line, to ask a question out loud about how to prepare something. Although I know several ways to prepare cardoons, there was a nice lady that was in line in front of me and I decided to throw my question out there.
Paola said Marisa was a fabulous cook and her suggestion for the cardoon polpettine sounded a lot like what my mother-in-law did with celery.( see the video here)
Marisa bundled up as it supposed to snow in Certaldo
Cardoons take a lot of prep to cook and this takes it one step farther. Marisa said to “Stritare bene bene” squeeze–(the boiled cardoons and bind with egg, parmesan cheese and a tiny bit of flour before pan frying. If I wanted something really, really special, to place them in a pan with a ragu or a stew to soak up the sauce.

The celery dish is the same and I have also seen a version in Montevarchi in ragu, where the celery is squeezed to look like spools, called rocchette.
Preparing Cardoons ( Cardi, Gobbi,Cardoni)Cut off the root end of the cardoons and remove any leaves, they are not edible.
Remove “threads” from the cardoon stalks ( like for celery)
Cut into 3 in pieces and place in water with lemon juice to prevent oxidation.
Bring a large pot of salted water to boil and cook the cardoon pieces until tender.

Drain and let cool.
Now they are ready to eat as is, can be just baked with butter and grated parmesan cheese or-
Floured and fried and eaten as is, lightly salted.orAfter frying place is a tomato sauce to stewor

Marisa’s Polpette: Meatless Meatballs

After cleaning and boiling the cardoons, mince finely and squeeze out the excess water.

Place in bowl and add 1 beaten egg and salt to taste.Add grated parmesan cheese and enough flour to hold the mixture together.Form small shapes to fry, like a patty or a spool.
Lightly flour or roll in breadcrumbs and pan fry.You can serve fried sprinkled with salt orAs Marissa suggested in the sauce of my chicken cacciatore.
Can’t wait for dinner to try in the sauce!

here are the breaded and fried polpettewith the chicken cacciatore


here they are actually cooked in the sauce-I agree, they look fabulous