I LOVE artichokes. So you can imagine how pleased I was to spend some time in southern Tuscany where artichokes grow like wildflowers (ok, that’s a slight exaggeration – but there’s a whole lotta them!).
Anyway, as I mentioned in Under The Tuscan Sunset, my hosts Vittorio and Alessandra took me to their fantastic Tuscan house for a few days. It was peaceful and beautiful, just as I’d expected. I didn’t do much but eat delicious food, relax in the garden and play with Mirta, their adorable blonde lab.
I did, however, learn how to prepare marinated artichokes!
First, we went to an artichoke farm and bought several kilos, fresh from the source.
We cut the stems and the flowery tips of the artichokes and peeled off the layers until they looked like this.
We soaked them in water with fresh lemons, then boiled them in three parts vinegar, one part white wine.
We set them out to dry, then stacked them face-up inside glass jars along with fresh laurel leaves and black peppercorns.
When the jars were filled to the top with artichokes, we poured olive oil to the brim – let it trickle down between all the artichokes until most of the air gaps were filled.
And voila! They make great gifts and they’re delicious (even though you should wait about a month to get the best flavor).
Anyway, look what I did!
It’s all thanks to my wonderful teacher. Thanks Vittorio!
So cool! Tim’s mom’s been giving him boiled artichokes lately so we’ve been eating them as snacks lately. So yummy! I bet those beat the ones at the newsroom. I’m so jealous.
Thanks a lot we saw your post yesterday and we were so pleased…forgive us for the sunset… I told a lie to you: there has been a good one also on friday 13th …
It’s always a pleasure to hear from you and remember, when you’ll be tired of travelling,all roads lead to Rome