Italian American Favorite Recipes A.C.I.M.: Sicilian Artichokes

Since I was a small child, my dad has been telling me how delicious his mother’s stuffed artichokes were. I mean, a lot. This comes up every time I see them. So I finally decided to give them a shot.

As for the recipe,

My grandfather is a wee boy on the back of a donkey, his mother comes out of the house holding a giant pot full of steaming stuffed artichokes–calling him, “Giacomo! Dinner!”

OK, none of this happened. Besides, the recipe was from my grandma’s side of the family.

I found a recipe for stuffed artichokes in this estate sale find, Italian American Favorite Recipes compiled by the friends and members of the American Committee on Italian Migration.

What the hell is the A.C.I.M.???

Of course I had to do some research on this.

QUICK HISTORY LESSON! From the Center for Migration Studies….

The American Committee on Italian Migration (ACIM) was organized in February 1952 as a member agency of the National Catholic Resettlement Council, which later formed part of the National Catholic Welfare Conference (NCWC). From its inception, ACIM’s chief objective was the liberalization of the United States immigration policy that, as delineated in the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952, rested upon a restrictive “national origins” quota. ACIM undertook a wide range of activities, from raising funds to sponsoring new Italian immigrants into the United States and promoting new immigration legislation by Congress. This collection contains additional materials donated to CMS by ACIM in 2003, mostly documenting ACIM’s work in the 1970s-1990s. The collection contains office files and case records pertaining to lobbying US Congress regarding immigration law, and to the assistance of Italian immigrants in Italy and the United States.

So basically, this group brought Italian immigrants to the US and then helping them once they got here. For more visit THIS SITE.

Speaking of groups, Mr. Sauce and I are going to join the Sons of Italy lodge here in Baltimore so we can get in on some bocce and Friday Night Dinners.  Who knows, maybe they have a cookbook!

Anyhoo! Here is  the recipe for the artichokes, courtesy of Ms. Rose Cuba:

And this is the end result:

It looks nice!

The stuffing, because it was steamed, was just kind of an under-cooked blob inside tasty artichoke leaves. I don’t know what exactly would save this. Maybe less bread crumbs and more cheese? More of a melty cheese?

I now own an InstaPot (thank you brother  and sister-in-law of Mr. Sauce!), so steaming artichokes is supposed to be ultra-easy. Perhaps in the future I’ll tweak this recipe and give them another go.

Also, I was desperately trying to get Mr. Sauce to dress up for Halloween as Dorothy Zbornak and I’d go as Sophia Petrillo. For a moment I thought he was in–but now it looks like I’ll be dressing up as a different Dorothy–one with ruby slippers.

Unless I can convince him to do this….