Marinated Artichokes Country Style

Uses: Serves 4

This is a simple and easy way of using Artichokes when they come into season. If you like you can use canned artichoke hearts which also work well. This is a nice summer salad to serve at a barbeque or almost any time. I have done this using medium size artichokes.

medium size artichokes

1 1/2 dl. or 2/3 cup

Olive oil (good quality)

1/2 dl. or 1/3 cup

red wine vinegar

1 msk. or 1 tbls

generous finely chopped parsely

1 msk. or 1 tbls

generous finely chopped basil

cloves garlic finely chopped

1 - 2

finely chopped red chili (without the seeds)

2 tsk or 2 teas.

salt (sea salt if you have)

Freshly grated black pepper

Assembling the recipe:

Put a pot of water on to boil large enough to hold the 3 artichokes with the juice of one whole lemon strained in it or 3-4 msk or tbls of white wine vineger

To prepare the artichokes, pull off any blacked or dried leaves from around the bottom of the artichokes. Cut off the stems about 3 cm from the base (1 1/4 inch) and peel them with a vegetable peeler.

The artichokes will begin to turn black as soon as you cut or peel them so cut and peel the stems and toss them directly into the cooking pot.

Boil them for about 30 minutes or until you can stick a small knife into the base of the artichoke and it feels cooked.

When cooked remove the pot to the sink and pour out as much water as you can. Place the pot in the sink and run very cold water over the artichokes for a minute or two to stop the cooking process. Let them sit in very cold water for about 10 minutes to be sure they have cooled down, This will also help them to give them a little nicer color. When cooled take them out and holding them upside down drain out as much water as you can. You can squeeze them with your hands gently to extract as much water as possible.

Place them upside down in a strainer and let drain for about an hour.

When ready cut the artichokes in half and then into quarters. This will make removing the choke easy. With your fingers pull out the hairy part that you see sitting in the middle of the artichoke, it is called the choke. You must be careful and remove every bit of it, leaving the heart of the artichoke intact. This shouldn't be any real problem if the artichoke was cooked enough.

Place them on a clean towel or paper towels cut side down to remove any remaining water.

In a large bowl pour in the oil to and then add all the chopped herbs. The salt and a really generous grinding of black pepper and mix.

Add the cut artichokes and mix with your hands by tossing the artichoke quarters very gently so that you don't break them up any further. Now add the vinegar and toss again.

Leave sit on the counter for an hour or two or place in the fridge well covered for about 3 hours.

When ready to serve taste for salt, artichokes seem to need salt, so it is a good idea to taste and if you have sea salt the dish benefits from the little crunch you get from it. Don't forget a bit of nice crunchy Italian bread.

Notes:

I love artichokes and in the summer when they come and are cheap and plentiful they are great with Sauce Hollandaise or a simple vinaigrette. Italians use them with this marinade and really prize the early small artichoke rarely available here.

You see these in every good Italian shop and are quite expensive but you can very easily make them yourself. This marinade can be used for other vegetables that you can precook and keep in the fridge for casual meals outdoors or for lunches and dinners. Try roasted peppers or roasted aubergine (eggplant). If you use this for roasted peppers or roasted aubergine, slice the garlic instead of chopping it so that you can remove it easily after 24 hours of marinating. If you don't the garlic can get bitter and ruin the taste of the vegetables.

Really large Globe artichokes will take longer to cook - about 45 minutes.

The ratio of vinegar is about 1 part vinegar to 3-4 parts olive oil. It is also important to use good oil for this. Not extra, extra virgin but a good extra virgin olive oil.

You can substitute 2 cans of artichoke hearts just be sure to drain them well and gently squeeze each one to get rid of as much of the brine they were packed in as possible. I use these all year round and always have a couple of cans in the closet.

Early in the season you can get very small artichokes. Remove all the leaves and choke with a small knife, then boil the hearts for about 10-15 minutes (you will need about 12 for 4 people). You will need a really sharp knife but really worth the effort and a great treat.

Remember that artichokes blacken almost as soon as you cut them so don't cut them up before you are going to cook them. If you do you need place them in a bowl of cold water containing the juice of one lemon or 1 dl. white wine vinegar which will stop them from changing color.

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Mail to Bill at bill.rubino@gmail.com