Who says that artichokes are difficult to get peeled?
ingredients for 4 servings (cost about 5 € pp)
- Salt
- 8 artichokes
- 4 small potatoes
- 4 slices pancetta, cut in very small pieces
- 1 onion
- 500 g fresh peas
- 400 g fresh ripe tomatoes
- EV olive oil
- 4 shallots
- Black pepper
- Fresh mint
– I say it. I cannot pass my whole day peeling and trimming artichokes, especially those ones with the spines.
– First of all, “those ones with the spins”, the wild ones, are more sweet and more tasty than the common ones. So, don’t underestimate them
Second, peeling artichokes is not difficult, you can read how to do it here. There are much more tiring and boring things in cuisine. Anyway, artichokes are a God’s gift, they deserve everything.
For this dish I suggest the use of a little portion of pancetta (or some other similar cold cut) in order to add some body to the preparation. So, after peeling the artichokes, the peas and the ….
– What? Do we also have to peel the peas? Why not to use frozen ones?
– There are ten months a year to cook with frozen peas. During spring months when fresh peas and artichokes are available, I suggest to use them, they are taster and healthier than the frozen ones.
So, after peeling the artichokes, the peas, the potatoes and the shallots, we bring a pot with salted water to boil. We first of all peel the tomatoes immerging them for a minute in hot water, after having cutting the surface with a knife.
Keeping the water boiling, we cook the peas for 3 to 5 minutes, according to their size and skin thickness (early peas have a thinner skin).
We remove them and we add the potatoes, the artichokes and the shallots. We lower the temperature to medium and we cook them of about 15 minutes, till tender.
Meanwhile in a large cold pan we put the pancetta (or other cold cut) with some olive oil. We bring to gentle heat and we add the onion. We cook them till the onion becomes soft, we then add the peeled tomatoes, cut in pieces and we cook for 10 minutes more.
We add in the pan the artichokes, the potatoes, the peas, the shallots and the mint, we check the saltiness adding the required salt and the greasiness adding some more olive oil. We cook for about 2 minutes.
We garnish with black pepper and we serve.
