I am a huge fan of artichoke hearts. I buy them in the jar in a marinade. I add them to salads and snack on them solo, while standing in my kitchen all alone because I am weird like that. I have never ever made anything with or even handled a real fresh artichoke. I remember back in high school. I was a sophomore and, in our English class, we had to do a “how to” speech. I demonstrated how to make strawberry pretzel Jell-O. It was a huge hit. There were these two 100% Italian boys in my class who demonstrated how to clean and prepare an artichoke. So, when I was doing my weekly grocery shopping and saw artichoke hearts, I thought, well, if these high school boys could do it, so could I! My experience of peeling off a majority of the leaves to get to the heart was a bit prickly, but easy. Then you have to scrape out the hairy choke part—ok, easy. Then heat the oil, give them a quick fry, and then toss with citrus zest and herbs. So easy! It is like a bite size bloomin’ onion, except not breaded and, well, …

Share: