Italian Foie Gras with Crispy Artichokes, Preserved Lemon and Marjoram | Foie Gras con Carciofi Croccanti, Limone Conservato e Maggiorana

Aug 18

9 min read

Updated: Sep 13

Foie Gras con Carciofi Croccanti, Limone Conservato e Maggiorana (Italian Foie Gras with Crispy Artichokes, Preserved Lemon and Marjoram)

This plate is not really about the liver. The foie gras is the anchor, but the work, the timing and the seasoning all belong to the two things around it: artichokes fried until the outer leaves shatter like glass, and preserved lemon rind that carries salt and acid in the same bite. Get those two right and the foie gras simply has to be hot and correctly seared.

The artichokes here are cooked the Roman way, flattened and fried twice, once low to cook and dry the flesh and once hot to open the leaves. The preserved lemon is a brined, lactic fermented citrus, not a squeeze of fresh juice, and the difference matters more than any other single decision in the recipe. Marjoram goes on raw at the end, because its oils are volatile and heat destroys them in seconds.

Serves 4. Prep: 30 minutes. Cook: 25 minutes. Total: 55 minutes.

The Story

The technique at the centre of this plate comes from the Jewish quarter of Rome. Carciofi alla giudia were being fried in the Ghetto long before the neighbourhood walls came down in 1888, and the method survives almost unchanged: a cimarolo artichoke, the round Romanesco variety grown in the sandy coastal fields around Ladispoli and Sezze, is turned down to the tender heart, pressed open against the board until the leaves splay into a flower, and dropped into oil twice.

Preserved lemon arrived in Italian kitchens from the other side of the Mediterranean. Salted citrus has been part of Sicilian and North African pantry practice for centuries, and Italian cooks along the southern coast have long kept jars of it for fish and for offal. Foie gras, by contrast, is French and belongs to no Italian tradition at all. Italian fine dining absorbed it during the 1980s and 1990s, and the more interesting kitchens refused to serve it the French way with sweet fruit and sauternes.

What they did instead was set it against the sharp, bitter, saline vocabulary that Italian cooking already owned: artichoke, citrus rind, wild herbs, olive oil. This dish sits exactly there. Roman frying, Sicilian salted lemon, a Ligurian hillside herb, and a French luxury product that is made to behave like a local ingredient.

Ingredients

For the crispy artichokes

Globe artichokes, preferably Romanesco or cimarolo, 8
Lemon, halved, for the acidulated water, 1
Neutral frying oil such as sunflower or peanut, 6 cups (1.4 L)
Fine sea salt, 1 tsp (6 g)

For the foie gras

Raw duck foie gras, cut into medallions 3/4 inch (2 cm) thick, 4 pieces of 3 oz (85 g) each
Fine sea salt, 1/2 tsp (3 g)
Black pepper, cracked at the last moment, 1/4 tsp (0.5 g)

For the preserved lemon and marjoram finish

Preserved lemon, rind only, rinsed and finely diced, 1 oz (30 g)
Fresh marjoram leaves, picked, 1 tbsp (4 g)
Extra virgin olive oil, 2 tbsp (30 ml)

For the pan jus

Light chicken stock, 1/2 cup (120 ml)
Unsalted butter, cold, 1 tbsp (14 g)
White wine vinegar, 1 tsp (5 ml)

Preparation

Turning and flattening the artichokes

Snap off the hard outer leaves until you reach the pale green ones that bend easily. Cut the stem to about 2 inches (5 cm) and pare it back to the white core. With a small sharp knife, turn the artichoke in a spiral, shaving the tough green skin from the base, then cut the top third of the leaves straight off. Hold the artichoke by the stem and press the head firmly against the board, rotating as you press, until the leaves open outward like a flower. Drop each one into water acidulated with the lemon halves. Before frying, drain them upside down and pat every crevice dry.

The first fry at low temperature

Bring the oil to 250 degrees F (120 degrees C) and check it with a thermometer rather than by eye. Lower in four artichokes at a time, stem up, and hold them at that temperature for 10 to 12 minutes. Nothing should colour. This stage is cooking and drying at the same time: the heart softens to the texture of a boiled potato while the thin outer leaves lose most of their water. Test by pushing the tip of a knife into the base of the stem, which should meet no resistance. Lift them onto a rack and let them cool and drain for at least 15 minutes.

Rinsing and dicing the preserved lemon

Take the preserved lemon from its brine and cut it into quarters. Scrape away all the soft pulp and the loose membrane with a spoon and throw it out, keeping only the rind with its thin layer of softened white pith. Rinse the rind under cold running water for a few seconds and blot it dry. Cut it into dice no larger than a grain of rice. Dress the dice with half the olive oil and set it aside at room temperature. Do not add the marjoram yet, and do not add salt to anything until you have tasted this mixture.

The second fry and the opening of the leaves

Raise the oil to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Working with two artichokes at a time so the temperature holds, lower them in head first and press them down against the base of the pan with a skimmer for a few seconds. The residual water trapped at the base of the leaves turns to steam and forces them apart. Fry for 60 to 90 seconds until the outer leaves are deep amber and audibly brittle, then lift them onto a rack, salt immediately while the surface is still oily, and leave them stem up so the oil runs out of the heart.

Searing the foie gras and building the jus

Take the medallions from the refrigerator at the last moment, season them on both sides and put them straight into a heavy pan set over high heat with no added fat. Sear for 40 to 50 seconds a side until a dark crust forms, then move them to a warm rack. Pour off all but a spoonful of the rendered fat, add the vinegar and let it hiss away, pour in the stock and reduce it by half, then swirl in the cold butter off the heat. Fold the marjoram into the preserved lemon now, not before.

Plating and Presentation

Warm the plates, because cold porcelain sets foie gras fat into a film within seconds. Put a shallow spoonful of the jus down first and let it settle into a loose pool rather than a drawn line. Set one medallion slightly off centre with its darkest surface facing up, and stand two artichokes beside it, tilted against each other so the open leaves catch the light and stay clear of the sauce. Scatter the preserved lemon and marjoram over the liver and onto the plate, a few pieces at a time, never as a mound. Crack the pepper at the table edge, not in the kitchen. Serve at once, while the artichoke leaves are still loud enough to hear when they break.

Professional Technique

Everything that makes an artichoke crisp happens in the gap between the two frying temperatures. At 250 degrees F (120 degrees C) the oil is below the threshold at which sugars and proteins brown, so the artichoke simply cooks and dehydrates. The outer leaves, only a fraction of a millimetre thick, lose nearly all their moisture and become a rigid, dry lattice. The heart, protected by the mass around it, stays hydrated and yielding. This separation of one vegetable into two textures is the whole point, and it cannot be achieved in a single fry.

The second bath at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) does something different. The water still held at the base of the leaves flashes to steam and pushes them outward, which is why the artichoke visibly blooms in the oil and why pressing it down with a skimmer helps. At the same time the dehydrated outer leaves brown almost instantly, because there is no water left to hold the surface temperature down. Salt goes on within seconds of lifting them out, while a film of oil still holds the crystals in place.

Texture and Moisture Control

The plate is a deliberate argument between three consistencies, and each one fails in a different way. The foie gras must be hot and creamy right through, which means a hard sear on a chilled medallion; if it goes into the pan at room temperature it renders instead of browning and you lose a third of the portion to the oil. The artichoke has to be glass on the outside and soft at the heart, and the only thing that ruins it is water, whether from a wet trimming, an undrained heart, or contact with the jus. The preserved lemon supplies the moisture that the dish does need, in small and controlled amounts. Keep the sauce underneath the components rather than over them, and never dress the artichokes.

Professional Mise en Place

This is a plate that punishes hesitation, because the foie gras and the second fry happen within the same two minutes. Everything else is finished and resting before the heat goes on.

Up to 6 hours ahead: turn the artichokes and hold them in acidulated water, refrigerated.
Up to 4 hours ahead: complete the first fry and leave the artichokes on a rack at room temperature, uncovered.
Up to 2 hours ahead: rinse, dice and oil the preserved lemon rind. Pick the marjoram and keep it dry and unchopped.
Keep cold: the foie gras medallions, portioned, on a tray in the coldest part of the refrigerator until the moment of searing.
A la minute: the second fry, the sear, the jus, and the final scattering of lemon and herb.

Chef Tips

Buy artichokes that squeak when you squeeze them. A silent artichoke has lost water in storage and will never crisp properly.
Fry the artichokes stem up in the first bath and head down in the second. The first position lets the heart cook gently, the second opens the leaves.
Taste the preserved lemon rind after rinsing and before deciding how much salt the foie gras needs. Brines vary enormously in strength.
If the artichokes have to wait more than 10 minutes after the second fry, give them 3 minutes in a 300 degrees F (150 degrees C) oven rather than back in the oil.

Common Mistakes

Frying once at a single high temperature: the leaves burn before the heart is cooked, and the artichoke ends up bitter outside and raw inside. The low bath is not optional, and it is the step most often skipped.

Using fresh lemon in place of preserved: fresh juice brings acid and water but no salt, and its volatile oils blow off in the heat. Brined rind brings salt, acid and concentrated peel oil in one piece, and that combination is what actually cuts the fat of the liver.

Leaving the pulp on the preserved lemon: the flesh holds most of the brine and will make the plate inedibly salty. Only the rinsed rind goes on the dish.

Adding the marjoram early: warmed in the sauce or chopped too far ahead, it loses the soft floral note that distinguishes it from oregano and turns flat and medicinal. It goes on raw, at the very last moment.

Wine Pairing

Alta Langa DOCG: The traditional method sparkler of the Piedmont hills, aged long on its lees and built on a spine of acidity that scours foie gras fat between bites. The fine bead lifts the richness off the palate, and the bready lees character sits comfortably beside the toasted note of the fried leaves.

Erbaluce di Caluso DOCG: A white from the moraine hills north of Turin with green apple acidity, a chalky grip and a faintly bitter almond finish. That bitterness is the reason it works here, because it runs alongside the vegetal bitterness of the artichoke instead of fighting it, while the acidity keeps the liver from coating the mouth.

Moscato d'Asti DOCG: The sweet counterpoint to foie gras, and in Piedmont it is the local answer rather than an imported one. Low in alcohol and gently frizzante, it never weighs on the dish, and its grape and orange blossom aromatics echo the concentrated peel oils in the preserved lemon.

Storage and Reheating

Seared foie gras does not keep and does not reheat. Cook it to order and serve it immediately. Raw medallions hold two days in the refrigerator at 34 to 38 degrees F (1 to 3 degrees C), wrapped tightly and kept on the coldest shelf. Artichokes that have had only the first fry keep well for a full day on a rack at room temperature, uncovered so they stay dry, and are in fact better the same evening than straight away. Once fried the second time they last minutes, not hours. The preserved lemon rind, oiled and diced, keeps three days refrigerated in a sealed jar.