Parmigiana di Carciofi

Eggplant parmigiana receives all the attention, but in Naples, the artichoke version holds equal standing. Perhaps more. It appears on Easter tables when artichokes are at their peak, when the tight globes from the Campania countryside are tender enough to slice thin and fry until golden.

This is a layered dish in the true Neapolitan style. Fried vegetables, simple tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and the additions that make it festive: thin slices of cooked ham and rounds of hard-boiled egg tucked between the layers. The eggs are not negotiable. They mark this as a celebration dish, something for Sunday or a saint's day or the arrival of family from far away.

Cleaning artichokes is labor. I will not pretend otherwise. You will stand at the sink removing tough outer leaves, trimming stems, scooping out fuzzy chokes, dropping each cleaned heart into lemon water before it can darken. This takes time. It takes patience. What you get in return is a parmigiana that tastes of something beyond eggplant, something distinctly spring, distinctly Neapolitan, distinctly worth the effort.