Artichokes Stuffed with Black Rice and Smoked Ricotta
Small spring artichokes stuffed with Il Moro, smoked sheep’s milk ricotta and fresh mint. The gourmet version, a smoky-fresh contrast.
Small spring artichokes stuffed with Il Moro (wholegrain black rice), smoked sheep’s milk ricotta from Sicily or the Cilento, fresh sheep’s milk ricotta and fresh mint. A gourmet vegetarian version, gluten-free. A smoky-fresh contrast: the smoked note of the ricotta speaks to the green, vegetal character of the artichoke, with the mint keeping everything in balance. Ready in eighty minutes, with our Moro from Lumellogno, grown in our closed supply chain.
At home our stuffed artichokes change their dress with the season and with the guest. When we want to bring the dish onto a more gourmet register, we go for this version with smoked ricotta and mint: the smoky note of the Sicilian or Cilento sheep’s milk ricotta hooks into the green, vegetal character of the artichoke, while the mint keeps everything fresh and stops the filling from turning dull. There’s no parmesan as in the classic version, no briny tang of tuna: there’s the most carefully judged flavour-and-temperature contrast of the three versions of this dish.
With our Moro, wholegrain black rice from Lumellogno, it works because the ricotta doesn’t go onto the rice while it’s boiling hot, otherwise it releases its whey and waters everything down. The rice needs to be left to cool to lukewarm first, and only then do you fold in the two ricottas and the mint. Three artichokes per person instead of four, plated on a white bowl-plate with a spoonful of reduced cooking juices: this is the version we like to present when we want to make a lasting impression.
Ingredients for 4 People
Ingredients
- 12-16 small stuffing artichokes (three or four per person)
- 240 g Il Moro Acqua e Sole rice (wholegrain black rice)
- 150 g smoked sheep’s milk ricotta (Sicilian or Cilento), coarsely grated
- 80 g fresh sheep’s milk ricotta, well drained
- 15-20 fresh mint leaves (some chopped, some whole for serving)
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 lemons (juice for soaking the artichokes)
- 1 unwaxed lime (grated zest)
- 6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (4 for the filling, 2 for the dish)
- 1 glass dry white wine (about 150 ml, for the dish)
- 200 ml light vegetable stock
- to taste freshly ground black pepper
- to taste grated nutmeg
- to taste fine salt (very little, the smoked ricotta is already savoury)
Notes from Home
- The smoked ricotta is the heart of the recipe: sheep’s milk only, Sicilian or Cilento, never replace it with generic smoked ricottas that don’t have the same smoky intensity
- Lukewarm rice, never boiling hot: if the ricotta touches hot rice it releases its whey and waters down the filling, so leave the grain to cool for two minutes before folding it in
- No parmesan and no egg in this variation: the savoury note comes from the smoked ricotta, the binding from the drained fresh ricotta, and the dish stays clean
- Lime zest instead of lemon: it’s more aromatic and speaks better to the smoked note of the ricotta without covering it
- Mint in two stages: half finely chopped into the filling, half whole over the dish at serving for an aroma that stays alive
Method
Cooking Il Moro al dente (30 min)
Bring a large pot with about a litre and a half of salted water to the boil, with a level tablespoon of coarse salt. Tip in the 240 g of Il Moro and cook over medium heat for about thirty minutes, stirring now and then. The rice should stay al dente (still firm to the bite): this is a part-cooking, it will finish cooking in the oven inside the artichoke. Drain, stop the cooking under a quick stream of cold water, transfer to a bowl and dress with a tablespoon of oil so the grains don’t stick together.
Trimming the artichokes (15 min)
Prepare a bowl of cold water with the juice of the two lemons. Remove the tough outer leaves of each artichoke until you reach the tender heart, cut off the tip by about two finger-widths, trim the stalk leaving three or four centimetres (the stalk is good too, don’t throw it away). Peel the stalk with a small knife down to the pale heart. As you go, dip the artichokes in the acidulated water so they don’t darken.
Blanching in water (8 min)
Bring a wide pot of salted water to the boil. Drop in the artichokes and blanch for exactly eight minutes: they must stay firm. Drain them upside down in a colander and leave them to cool to lukewarm for a few minutes. This part-cooking softens them just enough to be hollowed out without breaking and gets the inner cooking started before the oven.
Hollowing out the centre (10 min)
When the artichokes are lukewarm and easy to handle, gently spread the central leaves with your fingers and use a coffee spoon to scoop out the inner choke (the hairy filaments above the base). Work calmly: the base must stay intact, it’s the foundation that will hold the filling. Stand the hollowed artichokes upright, ready and waiting.
Preparing the filling with smoked ricotta (8 min)
In a wide pan, heat four tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil with two whole garlic cloves. When the garlic becomes fragrant, take it out. Add the Il Moro rice cooked al dente and stir for two minutes so it takes on flavour. Turn off the heat, transfer to a bowl and leave to cool for two minutes (important: the ricotta must not go onto rice that’s still boiling hot, otherwise it releases its whey). When the rice is lukewarm, fold in the coarsely grated smoked ricotta and the drained fresh ricotta, half of the finely chopped mint leaves, the grated zest of the lime, a grind of pepper and a pinch of nutmeg. Stir with a wooden spoon: flecks of ricotta should still be visible. Taste before adding salt: most likely it won’t be needed.
Filling the artichokes (10 min)
Stand the artichokes upright on a baking tray lined with baking paper, spread the central leaves a little more and use a teaspoon to fill each heart with the filling, pressing lightly. Scatter any leftover filling over the base of the tray around the artichokes, it will be full of flavour.
Oven (20 min)
Preheat a conventional oven to one hundred and eighty degrees. Pour the white wine and the vegetable stock over the base of the tray, about two hundred millilitres in total. Drizzle each artichoke with a thread of extra virgin olive oil over the top. Cover the tray with a sheet of baking paper and then a sheet of foil (the paper protects the filling from direct contact with the foil). Bake for exactly twenty minutes at one hundred and eighty degrees.
Resting, cooking juices and gourmet serving (5 min)
Take the tray out of the oven, remove the paper and foil, and leave to rest for five minutes out of the oven. In the meantime, reduce the liquid from the tray: transfer it to a small pan and let it reduce over a lively heat for two or three minutes, until it’s a glossy sauce. Plate three artichokes per person on a white bowl-plate with a spoonful of the reduced cooking juices. Garnish with the whole mint leaves set aside and a thread of raw extra virgin olive oil. Serve lukewarm.
The version that leaves a mark
When we want a slightly more important version of the dish, the one for a formal dinner or a spring lunch with guests who appreciate attention to detail, we go for this variation. You seek out a real smoked sheep’s milk ricotta, from Sicily or the Cilento, the kind that’s dark on the outside and ivory-white within. You chop the garden mint in two stages, one part fine in the filling and one whole for the garnish, and you set aside a lime for its zest. Three artichokes per person instead of four, cooking juices reduced into a spoonful: the dish changes register, but the technique is the same one that holds for the classic version with parmesan. Only the dress changes.
Lumellogno · The Novara plain
Why Il Moro stands up to smoked ricotta
In fillings with two ricottas and a strong aromatic herb like mint, you need a rice that won’t hide and won’t fall apart. That’s why here we use our Moro, wholegrain black rice from Lumellogno. The intact black pericarp holds up even after the al dente part-cooking and the final twenty minutes in the oven: the grain stays whole, separate, recognisable in every mouthful. We dry it at low temperature in our own drying plant, and it’s this slow process that gives it its structure. A rice processed in a hurry would open up when it meets the moist smoked ricotta and the cooking liquid in the tray.
«In the smoked ricotta version the rice can’t give up any water, because the ricotta already brings its own. Il Moro, dried at low temperature, keeps the grain compact even after the double cooking, and its toasted hazelnut flavour makes a clean counterpoint to the smokiness of the ricotta and the freshness of the mint.» From our kitchen in Lumellogno
We grow it at Lumellogno, west of Novara, and we process it on site with low-temperature drying. It’s a closed supply chain with ISO 9001 certified production, from seed to grain, that lets us guarantee the same quality in every pack that leaves our company. With gourmet stuffed artichokes the difference is there at the first taste: a whole grain even after the double cooking, a structure that holds the creamy filling of two ricottas, a clean hazelnut flavour that neither covers the mint nor is covered by the smoked note.
Questions about gourmet stuffed artichokes
Which smoked ricotta should I use for this filling?
Why does the rice need to be lukewarm before folding in the ricotta?
Can I prepare the artichokes in advance for a dinner?
Suggested Pairing
To accompany this gourmet version we like mineral whites with good structure, which stand up to the smoked ricotta without overpowering it. We’re happy to open a Soave Classico Superiore, fresh and lively, or a Greco di Tufo, with a Campanian minerality that speaks to the smoky note of the dish.
Avoid soft or oaked whites and big reds: they would flatten the mint and cover the subtle balance between the smoked ricotta and the hazelnut of the rice.
Il Moro Acqua e Sole Black Rice
Our wholegrain black rice, grown at Lumellogno and processed in our own rice mill. Intact black pericarp, clean toasted hazelnut flavour, low-temperature drying to keep the grain structured. The right variety for baked fillings and for gourmet dishes where the rice stays the protagonist: it withstands the double cooking without opening up and brings the structure on which to build a creamy filling without the dish turning slack.
Take Il Moro homeOriginal Acqua e Sole recipe, from our kitchen in Lumellogno.