Artichokes in extra virgin olive oil

Some products you buy because they look commercially interesting. Others you taste and immediately think only one thing: what am I going to make with this tonight?

These artichokes were definitely the latter. The first jars came home with us for our homemade pizza from the Big Green Egg. A good base, tomato, mozzarella, artichoke and, of course, a beautiful Extra Virgin olive oil. After that it was immediately obvious that they belonged in the range too.

A good preserved artichoke should not be limp and watery, but neither should it be fibrous and tough. These artichokes sit right in the middle: a soft, fleshy texture with just enough bite.

The flavour is mild, lightly vegetal and elegant. That makes them excellent on an antipasti board, but they also hold their own when used in warm dishes.

Galantino is first and foremost an olive mill. You can see that in products like this: the artichokes are not simply packed in a neutral oil, but in Extra Virgin olive oil.

It rounds out the flavour and gives the artichoke a soft Mediterranean richness. The oil is genuinely part of the product and deserves to be used as well.

Drizzle it over the pizza when it comes out of the oven, use it in a salad or toss it through warm pasta. The oil has also absorbed some of the artichoke flavour while in the jar, so it is far too good to pour down the sink.

Artichoke is a classic pizza topping, but the quality of the artichoke makes a huge difference. These stay beautifully fleshy and give every bite a soft, savoury and lightly vegetal flavour.

Our favourite combination? Tomato sauce, mozzarella, artichoke, a few good olives and some Extra Virgin olive oil after baking. Add a little prosciutto if you like. A pizza really does not need much more.

Serve them cold as antipasti or use them in warm dishes. Their soft yet firm texture makes them extremely versatile.

Galantino is best known for its Extra Virgin olive oil, which is exactly why its preserved products are so interesting. The quality of the oil is not treated as an afterthought. Artichoke and olive oil are meant to form one genuinely good product together.

We can of course explain that they are tender, fleshy and beautifully preserved in Extra Virgin olive oil. But that first jar probably says more: before we even thought about selling them, we wanted to open one ourselves. That is usually a very good sign.