Agnello coi carciofi – Sardinian lamb with artichokes stew – is a dish typically prepared and served during Easter and of Jewish origins. If you are a fan of lamb and love artichokes as much as I do, however, you should definitely cook it whenever the ingredients are in season!
Curious to see how it’s made? Continue reading!
Table of Contents
How To Make Agnello Coi Carciofi
Use the whole lamb
Here in Sardinia we actually use the whole lamb and chop it in pieces ourselves – bones included. If this isn’t suitable to you, just buy whichever bit you prefer. If you use a particularly fatty piece, you will need to add less oil.
Use garlic
You certainly can, and in fact some recipes suggest to use one or two cloves of garlic to begin with. Personally, I find the taste of lamb too delicate and that of garlic too strong, and the risk is that garlic would be too predominant a flavor – hence I don’t add it.
Add a dry white wine
Again, some recipes suggest to add wine indeed! For this recipe, you’d need a dry white wine – about 200 ml (slightly less than a cup).
Freeze any leftovers
You must! In fact, like with any other stew, this lamb and artichokes stew tastes even better the day after. If you decide to freeze, make a note of the day and eat within 90 days.
How To Make Agnello Coi Carciofi
Discover how to make agnello coi carciofi - Sardinian lamb and artichokes stew - with this very easy to follow recipe.
Ingredients
- 2 pounds (900 grams) chopped lamb
- 8 artichokes
- 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 1/2 lemon juice
- Salt
- Parsley
- Water
Instructions
STEP 1 - CLEAN THE ARTICHOKES
- Clean the artichokes as shown in this video. Set them aside in a large bowl with cold water and lemon.
STEP 2 - PREPARE THE CONDIMENTS
- Chop a small onion into small pieces.
- Wash a small bunch of parsley and chop it finely.
STEP 3- COOK THE LAMB
- Pour 4 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil into a large pot, add the chopped onion and the lamb, sprinkle some salt and mix.
- Cook on low heat for about 50 minutes, stirring occasionally.
STEP 4 - ADD THE LEMON
- Add the juice of half a lemon, and a glass or two of cold water to keep the stew nice and moist.
- Add the chopped parsley. Stir and continue cooking on low heat for another 15 minutes.
STEP 5 - ADD THE ARTICHOKES
- Directly chop the artichokes into the pot.
- Add enough water to cover the stew and continue cooking on low heat for 30 to 35 more minutes.
Notes
Serve hot!
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
6Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 252Total Fat: 16gSaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 11gCholesterol: 27mgSodium: 216mgCarbohydrates: 20gFiber: 9gSugar: 2gProtein: 12g
Further Readings
Make sure to check out my other recipes:
- An Incredibly Easy Recipe For Spigola Alla Vernaccia
- The Most Delicious Sardinian Food: Everything You Must Try
- How To Prepare Malloreddus Alla Campidanese (Gnocchetti Sardi)
- How To Make Sardinian Culurgiones
- How To Make Pani Frattau
- How To Make Seadas – Sardinian Cheese And Honey Pastries
- How To Make Sa Panada From Sardinia
- How To Make Su Mazzamurru: Sardinian Bread And Tomato Lasagne
- How To Make Sardinian Fregola Con Arselle
- How To Make Sardinian Zeppole
- How To Make Burrida Alla Cagliaritana
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I’ve made this dish several times following this recipe and it was delicious!
From my limited experience, it tastes best with spring lamb and very young artichokes, which are sometimes challenging to find in the US, since the label “lamb” can be applied to much older animals as well.
Glad you enjoy this recipe. I think it’s so easy to make!
Hi Claudia,
I found your blog trying to find info about Cagliari and definitely was super helpful, thanks for that, your work was amazing here. Congratulations!
I wanted to use this post to ask you directly something about this, I will go to Cagliari with my partner in a couple of weeks and she fell in love with this recipe, finding lamb and artichokes in our country is pretty hard, so was a surprise to discover that this is typical in your region. However, we found no information about where to find it in restaurants (There are just a few restaurants with an online menu). Do you know a good restaurant with this dish?
Also, how much would you recommend us to make reservations in restaurants considering we are going at the end of july?
Grazie mille!
Hello Pablo, you won’t be able to eat lamb with artichokes in the summer. Artichokes are seasonal and only eaten between December and March / April, and lamb is also quite seasonal here and definitely not eaten in the summer. Re. restaurants: I’d say depending on how popular it is, a week or two in advance is plenty! Most places, a few days.