ARTICHOKE ON CANNELLINI BEANS CREAM AND CRISPY CHEEK LARD

PREPARING

Let's start by soaking the cannellini beans 12 hours before preparation to allow them to soften (perhaps leaving a sprig of rosemary to give the beans a wild flavor).

Let's move on to the artichoke: clean it from the ripest leaves leaving only the tender and sweet part. Once cleaned, let's cook the artichoke, in a saucepan add extra virgin olive oil to taste, garlic to taste.

Once the garlic is browned, add the artichoke and let it brown too. Continue with a nuance of white wine; once the wine has evaporated, add the vegetable broth to cover half of the artichoke, cover the saucepan with a lid and let it cook for 6/7 minutes, until the artichoke has reached the right cooking.

Once cooked, let the artichoke cool, avoiding the heat causing overcooking.

Let's move on to the cheek lard: create slices of half a centimeter, place them in a pan and bake them (oven preheated to 180°) for 5/7 minutes, just long enough for them to lose the liquid and to make it crunchy. Once this is done, take out the crispy cheek lard and leave it on kitchen paper to dry it from excess fat.

Let's go back to the cannellini beans, once softened we move on to cooking: drain the beans from the liquid, in a saucepan over the fire add extra virgin olive oil and a clove of garlic, add the cannellini beans and cover everything with a good vegetable broth, letting the beans cook.

Once this is done, remove the saucepan from the heat and blend everything with an immersion blender leaving out the clove of garlic so as to have a cream of cannellini beans. Take the cooked artichoke and put it in a pan with capers and black olives, letting it brown well, douse with white wine. Once the wine has evaporated, add a drop of vegetable broth to ensure that the artichoke is hot to the core.

Let's move on to the plating: prepare a bed of warm cannellini cream, place the artichoke on the cream with capers and black olives, garnishing everything with the crispy cheek lard.

If the dish is too sweet on the palate, a sprinkling of lemon zest can give you that extra edge.