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Stanley Tucci has been on quite a few side quests these past few months. Between filming “The Devil Wears Prada 2” with his sister-in-law Emily Blunt (and Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep) and working on National Geographic’s “Tucci in Italy”—a new take on his canceled “Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy”—he’s also managed to attend the Winter Olympics, appear on the “Today” show, and launch an all-new pizza oven with GreenPan. The actor is so busy, even the Olympics commentators dubbed him the “Snoop Dogg of Italy” (who the Tucc met while at the Games, by the way).
With such a busy schedule, it’s no surprise that many of Tucci’s go-to recipes only require a few ingredients. That’s the Italian way after all.
We know Tucci as a pasta lover—he once told Allrecipes that he eats a pasta dish nearly every day. However, on a recent call with the Oscar-nominated actor, Tucci shared a new recipe with us that even his 7-year-old daughter Emilia, who he describes as incredibly picky in his book “What I Ate in One Year (and related thoughts),” couldn’t stop eating.
Stanley Tucci’s 3-Ingredient Artichokes alla Romana
I recently sat down with Tucci to discuss his new Indoor and Outdoor Pizza Oven that he launched with longtime business partner, GreenPan. We chatted about his favorite pizza (margherita), his favorite way to make pizza dough (either using his mother’s recipe or grabbing it premade from his local pizza shop), and his favorite colorway of the $799.99 electric pizza oven (Tuscan Olive).
After I was sufficiently craving pizza, I asked Tucci what his favorite recipe he’d recently made was, and he told me it was something he’d eaten the night before.
“I haven’t been cooking that much because I was away so much,” Tucci said.
Valid. But that’s also likely why the recipe that came to mind only required a handful of ingredients.
“Last night, I just made artichokes, sort of, alla romana—so, in oil, lemon, garlic, water, salt. That’s it,” he explained. “I love artichokes, I absolutely love them.”
Artichokes alla Romana are braised artichoke hearts that are simmered and essentially poached on the stove until fork-tender. Our sister site, Serious Eats, offers an artichoke alla Romana recipe that calls for olive oil and white wine instead of Tucci’s oil, lemon, and water. However, the end result seems to be the same.
The most difficult part of the recipe is cleaning the artichoke hearts, but once you get the tough parts trimmed off and the artichokes cleaned, the rest of the recipe is just a waiting game. You’ll add your seasonings (in Tucci’s case, garlic and salt) to the artichoke hearts’ leafy crevices, then place them stem side up in a pot of liquid (lemon, oil, and water for the Tucc). You’ll simmer the artichokes for about 30 minutes, then remove them from the pot and drizzle the cooking juices and more olive oil overtop, before serving them hot.
Tucci calls this recipe “delicious”—and, apparently, Stanley isn’t the only Tucci who approves this recipe.
“My daughter, who had never really eaten an artichoke before, couldn’t stop eating them. At the age of 7, it was really funny. She just wouldn’t stop,” he recalled with a laugh.
A few-ingredient recipe that’s also a crowd pleaser? I’m already on my way to the store to grab the supplies.
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Dining and Cooking