These Italian stuffed artichokes are made with simple pantry ingredients and result in the most comforting, crowd-pleasing side dish recipe.
You know those recipes you make that immediately transport you to another time, perhaps another kitchen or another place? These Italian stuffed artichokes do just that for me: they take me back to my Aunt Dolly’s kitchen north of Boston where I first learned this family recipe. A traditional Italian comfort dish, stuffed artichokes are a staple around the holidays in most Italian homes. They are also the perfect side dish for Sunday dinner. Drizzled with lemon juice then steamed until tender, the end result is cheesy, garlicky, and full of flavor.
Ingredients
- Artichokes: A little bit earthy and slightly bitter, the heart and bottoms of the leaves are what you eat on an artichoke.
- Bread crumbs: Just regular bread crumbs mixed with some oregano and basil for added Italian flavor.
- Parmesan cheese: A nutty and salty tasting hard cheese that melts and coats the stuffing of the artichokes.
- Parsley: Slightly peppery and earthy in taste, fresh parsley adds color as well as flavor to the dish.
- Garlic: Essential for most recipes in my book, garlic is pungent, aromatic, and when it cooks, it sweetens and strengthens in flavor.
- Lemon juice: Bright and acidic flavor that coats the artichokes before they cook.
- Olive oil: Coats the stuffing and tops to help everything cook evenly.
How to Make Italian Stuffed Artichokes
Start your Italian stuffed artichokes by making the filling. Take the Italian breadcrumbs and add them to a large bowl with the parsley, garlic, parmesan cheese, and some salt and pepper. Stir until fully combined.
Then take your artichokes and cut off the stems and the tops, cutting usually about an inch off the top. Then gently push out the leaves to that the flower opens up a bit for the stuffing to fall in.
Then take your fresh lemon juice and squeeze it over the top of each artichoke.
Fill in-between each leaf or petal with the stuffing until the artichoke is packed.
Drizzle over the top with olive oil and more lemon juice.
Put the stuffed artichokes in a large pot standing up, then fill with water to just under the outer leaf layer.. Bring to a boil, then cover with a lid and reduce heat and simmer for about 45 minutes or until leaves feel tender.
Serve warm, but not so hot that you can’t peel and eat them with your hands.
Serve garnished with additional lemon juice and fresh parsley, and enjoy your Italian Stuffed Artichokes!
Frequently Asked Questions:
How do you eat an artichoke?
To start, you eat the petals. They can be either dipped in a sauce or butter. The pulp portion of the petal at the base is what you eat. The stems are edible but would need to be peeled and cooked first.
How do you cook an artichoke?
If you need additional help to cook artichokes take a look at my How to Cook Artichokes {Easy Step-by-Step Tutorial} post.
Are artichokes poisonous?
No. However, you don’t want to eat the hairy choke inside nor the sharp, fibrous outer portion of the leaves because they are choking hazards, hence the name.
More Italian Recipes
- Italian Pasta Salad
- Best Italian Wedding Soup
- Italian Chopped Salad with Cannellini Beans
- Italian Chicken Pasta with Artichokes
- One-Pan Italian Sausage Pasta
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Whether you’re hosting a family gathering for the holidays this year or attending a party at someone else’s house, I am confident my husband’s family recipe for Italian stuffed artichokes will be a huge hit.
No forks required.
Italian Stuffed Artichokes
Equipment
Recipe Video
Ingredients
- 6 whole artichokes
- 2 cups Italian bread crumbs
- ½ cup parmesan cheese (grated)
- ¼ cup parsley (minced)
- 4 cloves garlic (minced)
- salt and pepper to taste
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- 6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Soak artichokes in cold water for 30 minutes.
- To prepare the artichokes: Cut off stems of the artichokes with a sharp knife. Make sure the cut is straight so artichoke will stand flat.
- Slice off ¼ inch straight from the top of each artichoke (the prickly part).
- Stand the artichoke upside down and push firmly on the stem side to slightly open the leaves making room to catch the stuffing. Using scissors, cut the tip of each leaf straight across.
- Squeeze half of the lemon juice inside the artichoke.
- In a large bowl, mix together the bread crumbs, grated cheese, parsley, garlic, salt, and pepper. Fill each leaf with the stuffing until artichokes are well packed.
- Drizzle with olive oil then squeeze more lemon juice over the artichokes. Sprinkle with a little salt over the top and sides.
- Put artichokes standing up into a wide pot large enough to hold the artichokes. Add enough water to cover just to the top of the bottom row of leaves of the artichokes.
- Add 1 tablespoon of salt in the pot. Cover and let the water come to a boil. Lower the heat and let the artichokes simmer for 45 minutes or until leaves are tender. Serve warm.
I prefer fried artichokes but even then they’re not bad at all!
I am 82 years old and ended up buying artichokes for my family, when I couldn’t remember exactly what to mix the breadcrumbs with!!! Thank you for the advice.
I would eat through the leaves till I get to the “choke” and then simply scrape it iff with a teaspoon. Easy as that.
Thank you again.
Aletta
This will be my 3rd time using this recipe, One of the best I’ve ever run across !!! Super flavorful !!!!
Maybe I missed it in your directions, but you need to remove the choke (the prickly part inside) with something like a grapefruit spoon before you stuff the artichokes.
Linda, my mother made stuffed artichokes as long as I can remember. She never removed it before steaming. We remove it once the leaves have been eaten to get to the heart.
You don’t get to the “choke” until you get to the more delicate leaves. THEN you scrape it off,;to get to the “heart.”
Wou led love to try these. Can I use grated Locatelli instead of shredded Parmesan?
Yeah that would be great, too!
My mother always used Locatelli. It’s actually pecarino romano. I use it in everything that calls for parm. A better product
I absolutely LOVE this recipe, and directions are precise and comforting!
My grandmother used to make stuffed artichokes and I miss it so much. I haven’t made these in years so now I’m psyched! Thank you!♥️
Can you believe the grocery store near me cuts the stems off their artichokes! I asked for the produce manager and told them off – the stem is 2nd best to the heart – one of the best parts! They wanted the artichokes to sit on display better, all sitting up without the stems. Unbelievable!!!
Wow! We weren’t even finished eating these and my husband asked if they were difficult to make. (He was ready to go shopping for more artichokes) This might be a weekly dish!
I only put in 2tbls parmesan cheese since we try to be dairy free
Try the Maltese way. Wash well. Trim off spiky leaves with scissors. Press face down on kitchen table to separate easily. Fill with mixture of bread crumbs, chopped fresh parsely, stoned olives, anchovies, salt and pepper, tinned tuna and anything else you like. With a spoon put some of the stuffing between the leaves. Put in small saucepan so that they stand upright. Put the peeled stalks in between. Drizzle some oil over them and add water to half way up. Sprinkle salt, cover tightly and cook slowly (or use a pressure cooker)until when you pull a leaf out it comes away easily. Drizzle salad oil before eating.
The most interesting part is the eating! Pull a leaf out, put between teeth and pull!
Sounds delicious! Thanks for sharing!
That recipe looks so yummy! I’ll have to try that one. Thank you for sharing.
These sound so delicious, I have been meaning to make them for a long time, but I confess I am going to make a deconstructed version with drained canned artichokes sprinkled with all the good stuff.
My mom made these EVERY YEAR for the holidays now that she’s 😐 gone I try to follow on. I’m not too bad at it and my family loves them.
I have never seen a recipe for stuffed Artichokes without taking out the Choke first. You just have to cut off the top inch or so, smash the cut side on the cutting board, and just dig into the center with a good heavy metal spoon, The more you take out, then you’ll see the heart. Make sure you don’t scoop too deeply or you’ll end up removing the heart which is the best part. But once you’ve cleaned out all the sharp pieces, and fuzzy choke, then squeeze lemon inside and out, then fill a lot of leaves but don’t pack the center. Gently drop the stuffing into the middle. If you pack it too tight the crumb in the middle will be kind of sandy, instead of moist. I learned from a Nonna who came from southern Italy. She cooked like a dream, so did her daughter who was my mother’s best friend and my second mother.
Awww Nonna always knows best!! Thank you!
If you use small artichokes they don’t have the thistle so no waste.If you let them get too big then they have “the choke” 😊
So glad you cleared that up for first time makers!! I come from a Neapolitan family of incredibly good cooks and so I am used to having artichokes that taste heavenly. That is the way they were made. I was always to busy to bother with artichokes and I forgot what I was missing. My family will now enjoy artichokes again. They are delicious and they are fun. I have had them at restaurants with sauces on them and capers and olives in them and they are not what I remember. This is my Mom’s recipe!!!
I’ve never actually seen anyone remove the choke. I come from a large Italian family, and grew up in an Italian neighborhood. Neither of my grandmothers nor my mother took them out. It’s easy enough to peel it out after cooking 😃
the way to get the choke/flower out is to slice lengthwise root to tip after the first knife cut across the top, then the choke/flower is exposed for easy removal; you can then stuff the cavity whre that material was and cook with the open side up, OR you can put the two halves back together, and stuff top-down as originally suggested in the recipe
Great tips!
I’ve made these for years. Always turn out great. I have removed the inner pointy yellow/pink center. Quick and easy with a small cookie scoop, like a small ice cream dipper, a melon baller, but a spoon is harder with thinner handle to grip and twist with easy leverage. I immediately squeeze a bit of lemon juice as delicious choke will brown quickly if doing this to multiple artichokes. Years ago I found an old fashioned metal ice cream scoop (for 25 cents) at a yard sale. It is the kind that is slightly oval shaped with a bit of a dip on the sides. (The kind you’d see a shop server, shaving up curled round scoops.) It works, but smaller aforementioned scoops are better. BUT it is perfect for scraping out butternut or spaghetti squash. Finely cubed soft bread (like an asiago baguette, sold at Panera’s) takes stuffing flavors to different level. For a bit more protein for vegetarian friends, I’ve added chopped pine nuts or finely chopped walnuts to stuffing. Melt equal parts butter & EVOO with chopped garlic, or shallot. Pour off flavored oil/butter leaving behind solids. Squeeze in room temperature lemon juice and place in multiple dipping bowls. Make twice as much as you think because once people start dipping outside leaves, before dragging between teeth, it’s easy to go heavy (napkin bibs may a helpful offering.) Seriously, I’m off to make these now for dinner.
Ohhhh that metal scraper sounds like the ultimate garage sale find! Love the idea of adding pine nuts too!! Thanks for all your insight and tips.
If I cut it across the top with a knife , then why do I need to cut each petal straight across ?? Am I really cutting twice ? I’m confused…
Because you won’t reach all the petals doing the top cut – make sense?
I use small manicure scissors to quickly remove the sharp thistle tip from each leaf end. This makes eating the outside leaves painless (dragging off soft part through teeth). A bowl for tough, discarded parts of leaves is, helpful.
Oh that’s such a smart idea Drew!
Grapefruit spoon ( has serrated edges) is very effective in removing the hairy growth on top
No you cut the tip of the artichoke tops off and then all the little stems around it you cut the lower ones that weren’t cut with the scissor.
Cut the REST of leaves tips off with scissors.
Can I steam in my ninja foodi ?? If so, should I use high or low setting ? Thank you!!
I’m not sure – I’m not familiar with the Ninja Foodie great idea though!!! Try it!
I’m not familiar with that device. But, my mom always used a pressure cooker (the old fashioned kind) on the stovetop. They came out perfect!! Delicious and so tender. Good luck!!
My grandmother made these often, but she cleaned out the prickly “choke” in the center before stuffing, but I have no idea how she reached in and did it. Do you have advice?
I actually have never done that – I usually just eat around it! Perhaps you could try with a small, sharp knife? Sorry I can’t help you further!
My mother never removed the heart. True Italian left it alone until the leaves were all eaten.
I do mine in a different order: cut top and trim stems, then boil. This softens it enough to scoop out the choke with spoon or ice cream scoop. Just reach inside and scoop. Or if you care less about looks, you can slice artichoke in half and scoop out (much easier). Then I stuff it with recipe here, then bake it for just a while to toast the breading. Same recipe, just different order.
That’s a great tip!!!
That’s a Great idea thank you .. What my mom taught me to do is (wearing gloves) prize the leaves apart and the using the back of a teaspoon I scrape out the “choke” ..ps it’s hard work but worth it
Ohhhh SMART idea with the teaspoon!!!! Thanks Mom!!
I love all the tips really. What I would like to share, however, is how my half Italian/Brazilian mother always taught me (can you believe artichokes can be a 8 year old favourite dish and that I passed it on to my own kid?)
Here’s the process:
1. Keep any leftover baguettes if you can spare them, allow them to dry for a couple of weeks then blend them. Keep them in the cupboard, they’re pretty immortal and you can do all sorts of things with them or just buy fresh breadcrumbs, I prefer the home made stuff because not only it tastes better but it avoids food waste.
2. When buying the artichokes, hold them by the stalk and give it a wave: if it’s wonky that means they’re perfectly ripe. I bought a couple in the UK a couple of days ago and they weren’t, still I cooked them anyway and they came out perfect. I suppose they just needed more cooking..
3. Bring your lovely flowers home, wash them but this is the important bit: don’t bother trimming leaves, they just hold more stuffing, and trust me, you want that. Also, cut the stalk, and don’t throw it whatever you do!! Use a small knife (I actually used a steak serrated knife for this) and peel off the outer bit. Chop into small pieces and put them in a bowl with the breadcrumbs + olive oil + seasoning + chopped garlic and parsley if you wish. Garlic is a must though, don’t skip it.
4. This is the fun bit: grab your chokes, hold them upside down and then just bash them onto a chopping board or clean surface to spread the leaves open. It is very therapeutic.
5. Grab your stuffing and use a spoon to add as much as you can. The more the better. Don’t over do it though because you will cook it in boiling water later..
6. Have a day old piece of bread (like a French bread or baguette) cut it in half to top your beauties. Place them on top of the stuffing and secure them with toothpicks.
7. I must admit I cheated on this step because I was cooking lots of things at the same time but here it goes:
My mum would say: huge pot, olive oil and chopped garlic. Fry them a bit (til golden) add the chokes standing upwards, then add boiling water til about half their height.
What I did: olive oil, garlic powder, same procedure… Cover and cook for about one hour.
When you open your lid and the leaves can be plucked easily you’re done. be careful removing them, be it kitchen tongs, a sieve, fork, spatula etc. And dish them out.
Eat the chunky bits at the end of the leaves with the stuffing (try to save some for the heart at the bottom it really is the best part of it all).
Oh, you might want a separate bowl for the eaten leaves..
This is how I learnt to make it 2 decades ago, it’s on my daughter’s top 5 foods (she’s 9). It is also how my great grandmother taught my nan who taught my mum who taught me. I hope you try it. Sorry about the long reply but if any of you love artichokes as much as I do, you should give this variation a try.. you’re welcome!
I love your feedback and tips so much thank you so sharing your wisdom!
Spoon works great