La Platicona Habla: Tastes, Passions and Pursuits

When cooking gnocchi, I decided to use some leftover artichokes I had in the fridge and prepared them by hand to make a non-herb based pesto sauce. I know, however, that many of you would rather use canned artichokes, and I can't blame you. I recommend you try Roland's brand hearts. This Spanish company makes a line of canned and jarred gourmet foods rather cheaply and you can find them at any local grocery store. So now that you have my blessing to use canned artichokes, feel free to use them as the base of this fabulous simple pesto. I imagine that you could also serve this sauce with bow tie or penne pasta as well, but gnocchi would be the best.

You will need:
- 1 can of artichoke hearts, drained;
- 4 cloves of garlic;
- 1/2 c olive oil;
- zest and juice from 1 lemon;
- 1/2 c grated parmesan;
- handful of italian parsley;
- salt & pepper to taste.
- You need a blender or food processor to make this pesto.

Step One: In your food processor, combine the artichokes, garlic, lemon, parmesan, parsley, and blend until well incorporated.

Step Two: While running the blender or food processor, slowly drizzle in the olive oil to build the consistency of this pesto to a semi-liquid state (a colloidal mixture if you will). If you require more liquid, add olive oil. Season with salt & pepper. You can cover this in a tupperware dish and keep for 2-3 weeks.

To serve this, pour the sauce into a pan over medium heat. Let the sauce warm through and then add your gnocchi (it is already cooked and just needs to be heated up). I added toasted pine nuts as a finishing touch, and I also included them in the pesto sauce - it is not necessary to do so, but it gives the pesto that tradiitonal nutty taste that goes very well with the earthy potato based gnocchi.

Labels: artichokes, pesto

This "1-2-3" of preparing artichokes is dedicated to Chris the produce worker at Whole Foods in Boulder who hooked me up with a free sample of the mini globe artichokes I was lusting after in the store. The artichoke is a large immature flower bud of a thistle called Cynara Scolymus that is native to the Mediterranean. The etymology of the name is actually from the Arabic, al'qarshuf. The edible part of this flower is towards the base, requiring the cook to discard the outer petals to prepare for eating. I made a delicious pasta out of these chokes, but you can also use them as appetizers, in a salad (raw or cooked), and as toppings for pizza.

Step one: Take the choke and peel off the outer layer of leaves - there are a lot, so don't panic when you are left with half of what you started with.

Step Two: take your knife and peel the stem down to the green, and cut off the top half.
At this point, you can cut the choke into 2 halves, cut out the core and serve raw with salad, or cook them following step three.

Step Three: Add artichokes to a pot of boiling water with lemon and salt. Boil for 4-7 minutes, remove and drain. Cut the chokes in half and remove the spiny hearts. You can finally eat these little guys any way you'd like.

Labels: artichokes