Just in the past few years have I started to eat artichokes. I started by trying spinach artichoke dip. Pretty safe, you can hardly even see or taste the artichokes in all that cheese. I liked the dip so next I moved on to linguine with artichokes. This pasta uses canned artichoke hearts, which in my mind is safer then a whole artichoke. The entire heart is edible, I didn’t have to worry about pointy leaves or the “choke.” I mean what the heck is a choke, anyway? I loved the pasta so I decided it was time for the real thing. A whole artichoke. I was scared.We made these artichokes for Father’s day this year. My family loves stuffed artichokes but we do not eat them very often. I knew there was a lot of prep work for artichokes but I was not prepared for the “choke.” Cut the stems off, easy. Trim the pointy leaves, easy. Cut the tops off, easy. Remove the choke. Huh? I started scraping at the center and all these little furry hairs came out. Yuck. Plus those little leaf things are sharp! After complaining for awhile, and trying to get someone else to remove the chokes, I finally got down to business and removed those chokes. All I could think was, these better be worth all this work! And they were. The leaves were tender and meaty and had plenty of bread crumbs too. I will definitely be making these again but I may have to search for artichokes with the chokes already removed.
Here is what you’ll need
Remove the stem
Trim the pointy leaves; be careful they are sharp.
Cut off the top of the artichoke
Do your best to remove the choke
Combine the bread crumbs, garlic and cheese
Add some salt and pepper
Add the juice of 1 lemon and the olive oil
Stir to combine
Stuff the artichokes
Place them in a large pot
Add the water
Now, if only they came without the choke….
Ingredients5 Medium sized artichokes3 cups bread Crumbs1 cup Romano Cheese, grated6 Tablespoons Olive oil, plus more for drizzlingThe juice of 1 lemon6 Garlic cloves, crushedSalt and pepper to tasteDirectionsWash and dry each artichoke. Cut off the stem of the artichoke. Trim all of the pointy leaves with scissors. Cut off the top of the artichoke. Try to spread out the top leaves so that you can see the choke. Remove the choke as best you can. Combine the rest of the ingredients together in a bowl. If it seems too crumbly add a little extra olive oil. Put generous amounts of filling between all of the leaves and in the center of the artichoke. Drizzle with olive oil. Place in large pot and fill with water. You want about ¾ of the artichoke to be submerged in water. When filling the pot try not to get the top of the artichoke wet. Bring to a simmer. Continue to simmer about 40 minutes until the artichokes are tender.Source: A Live Love Pasta original
