As I continue to find artichokes at the market, I keep bringing them home. I think if I had to pick one vegetable as my favorite, it would be the artichoke. There’s really nothing else like them. Thank you to the person who looked at this odd-looking thing and thought “I wonder if I could eat that?”.
I love cutting artichokes in half, steaming, and grilling, but I also like to clean them and cut them up and make ravioli or just cook them with some garganelli (mom’s favorite pasta). That’s what I did tonight. This is a fairly quick and simple dinner, with the only time consuming thing being the cleaning of the artichokes. As you practice, you will get better and faster at this. After the artichokes were all cut up, I sautéed them in a little olive oil, added some sweet onion, deglazed with some wine and added some of the pasta water and cream. The whole thing took about 45 minutes.
Garganelli with Artichokes, White Wine, and Cream
Ingredients:
- 2 large artichokes
- 2 lemons or limes
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 sweet onion, sliced into pieces the same size as the artichokes
- 1/2 cup dry white wine
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- salt to taste
- 250 grams garganelli (I like the Rustichella d’Abruzo brand)
Directions:
Place a large pot of salted water on to boil.
Prepare a bowl with water and squeeze 1 1/2 of your lemon or lime into the bowl. Save the other half to rub on artichokes as you prepare them. Clean artichokes down to the hearts, cut in half, and cut halves into slices about 1/8″ thick. As you clean the artichokes, rub them with the lemon or lime as you cut to keep them from getting brown, and then drop into the bowl of acidulated water.
Once the artichokes are ready, drain them and pat them dry. Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium high and add the artichokes and a little salt. Sauté until they are golden brown, about 5 minutes.
By now, your water should be boiling and you can add the pasta to the water.
Add the onion to the artichokes and season with salt. Lower the heat, and continue to cook for a few more minutes until the onions are starting to soften.
Add the wine and reduce for a few minutes. Then add a couple of ladles of the pasta water and continue to simmer so that the artichokes get soft and cooked through. Add more water if needed. Just before the pasta is done, add the cream. Taste for seasoning and add salt if needed.
When the pasta is done, fish it out of the water with a spider and add to the pan with the sauce. Turn the heat up and toss for a minute.
Sprinkle with chopped parsley. Serve with grated parmigiano reggiano to pass at the table.
