Baked Artichokes with Herb Sausage Stuffing

What better way to prepare fresh artichokes than by stuffing them with this incredible recipe with herbs and ground sausage. This highly attractive vegetable once it is completely finished and presented to the guest ,is certainly going to be an eye catcher.. Alot of people tend to be a little shy when working with fresh artichokes thinking perhaps is just too much labor involved. The reality of preparing what looks like a green oversized acorn,is actually pretty simple, and not as difficult as one could imagine. Stuffing artichokes requires a few steps in its process. First prepping these wonderful vegetables, you must trim a layer of outer leaves near the bottom of the artichoke near the the stem, and then trimming the skin of the stem itself, Make sure you leave the stem there, your only cleaning the stem up a little. Your next step is to blanch the whole artichokes in boiling water, with a squeezed lemon half. The lemon and its juice add flavor and helps retain its color. Blanch the artichoke about fifteen minutes till it becomes fork tender, Once its blanched take it from the hot water to shocking them in ice cold water. This will prevent if from cooking further and make it more manageable to handle them. Next you need to cut them in half from the tip of the artichoke all the way through the stem, Heres the tricky part, looking inside the halved artichoke ,down towards the stem, you will see the middle part that looks fuzzy, or even a little hairy, that is what is referred to as the choke. Using a spoon you need to scoop all that out and in that general area you need to make a cavity about 2 1/2 inches round. I then drizzle olive oil on the inside part of the artichoke and grill it face down, to get a nice few grill marks. Once you make the stuffing and pack in the cavity ,you just drizzle extra virgin olive oil on top of each halve and bake it for 12-15 minutes till the top of the stuffing turns golden brown. And thats all there is to making them . The outer leaves should be easy to pull off and eaten by biting down on the tip of the leave and pulling it away from your mouth using clenched teeth. The stuffing is just consumed with a fork. You can use a herb mayonnaise as a dip for the artichoke leaves too. Ok assuming you have all this information down. lets start the recipe.

Ingredients ( Based on 6 people)

1) 3 whole fresh artichokes

2) 3 1/2 cups of Herb Stove Top Stuffing

3) 4-5 nice size links of mild Italian sausage

4) about 3/4 cup olive oil–all for drizzling

5) 1/4 cup of chopped fine onions–saute these separate

6) A small splash of any White wine–I always use a Chardonnay

7) 1 lemon large–cut in half and squeezed into the boiling water

8) pot of boiling water large enough to house the artichokes

9) Parmesan cheese 1/4 cup

10) Chopped Parsley

Assembly

1) Cook off Italian sausage till fully cooked,–let cool–chop fine–i use a food processor with a few fast pulses

2) Place artichokes ,squeezed lemon halves and juice into light boiling water– till tender– about 15 minutes

3) In a medium size mixing bowl add stuffing , 1/2 package of seasoning from the box of Stove Top, add chopped sausage and just shy of half the olive oil, add splash of white wine–mix well–let sit a few minutes–

4) Add to your stuffing mix–Parmesan cheese, parsley choped, and your saute onions–mix everything well–stuffing should form if squeezed together

4) Grill artichokes face down for a quick 2-3 minutes just for grill marks–or you can use a hot saute pan either way-George Foreman Grill works great for this

5) Stuff the artichokes ( with stuffing ) in the cavity–nice and full–lay out in a baking pan –stuffing side up–drizzle remaining Olive oil on top of stuffed artichokes

6) Bake at 350 degrees, 12-15 minutes till the top of the stuffing is golden brown

Serve on a large platter ( or individually) with a small bowl of mayonnaise seasoned with the remaining seasoning from the box of Stove Top stuffing

I would get all choked up if you mastered this artichoke recipe