Day 31: Springtime Spaghetti with Baby Artichokes and Herbs

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds baby artichokes, trimmed of outer leaves, stems, and tops of larger chokes trimmed, very thinly sliced, no more than 1/8-inch thick.

2 small ripe lemons, halved

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (evoo)

1/4 pound pancetta, cut into fine dice (optional)

4 large shallots, finely chopped

4 large cloves garlic, fine chopped or grated

Black pepper

1 cup dry white wine (chicken broth as substitute)

Salt, to taste

1 pound spaghetti

A generous handful mint leaves

A generous handful flat-leaf parsley

1 cup loosely packed basil leaves

Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, a generous handful for tossing plus some to pass at the table

Yields: 4

Preparation:

Fill a large bowl with water. Squeeze lemons into the water and add them to bowl. Add sliced artichokes to bowl as you work so they dont turn brown.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil for pasta

Heat 1/4 cup EVOO, 4 turns of the pan, in a large skillet over medium heat. Add pancetta, if using, and brown a couple of minutes. Add shallots and garlic, and cook 3-4 minutes more.

Drain the artichokes, discard juiced lemon halves and add artichokes to pan. Season with pepper. Raise heat a bit and saute until light golden at edges, 6-7 minutes. Add wine, stir, and reduce by half. Cover pan, reduce heat to a simmer and cook covered, 5-6 minutes more. Season with salt to taste.

Meanwhile, salt the boiling water and cook pasta to al dente. Reserve about 1/2 cup of cooking water before draining pasta.

While pasta cooks, finely chop the mint with parsley. Stack up the basil leave, roll them into a log and thinly slice the logs of leaves across.

Uncover the artichokes and stir in the reserved starchy water. Bring sauce to a bubble , add drained pasta, mint and parsley. Toss to combine, 1-2 minutes. Turn off heat. Add a handful of cheese and basil to pasta and toss again to combine, serve immediately.

What we thought:

We would rate this 8/10. We didn't have baby artichokes in the grocery store yet, so I used canned artichokes. I did not use pancetta, nor did i use the water with lemon because the artichokes were already in a jar. With that said, this was really easy to make, it took less then thirty minutes, and I enjoyed this hott the day I made it, and I enjoyed it cold the next day as leftovers. When we get artichokes in the grocery store, I will retry this again, because I think it was taste a little bit better with fresh ingredients.