Spring! And roast artichokes

Here in Rome the cherry trees are blossoming, a magnolia tree down the road is bursting in flower and spring is officially here. People are still bundled up, as the mornings can be cool, but on sunny days it is just glorious. The sidewalks are full of people chatting, the coffee bars still have extra tables outside where people linger over coffee over a spritz, and it is busy. Just lovely.

It is still artichoke season, which is wonderful. They are piled up at markets and vegetable shops, and are everywhere on menus: carciofi alla giudia, deepfried; carciofi alla romana, braised with garlic, olive oil, parsley and mentuccia (lesser calamint). Artichokes might tucked in to a plate of carbonara con carciofi, or served with lamb offal (coratella con carciofi). It takes practice and confidence to clean artichokes: cutting back the external leaves enough, but not too much. Fortunately most vegetable sellers will sell them ready-cleaned, a bag of 4-5 artichokes ready to cook, which lowers the threshold considerably.

We had a friend visiting from UK, who really enjoyed the local market. This is the “new” one on Via Rosa Guarnieri Carducci, which was refurbished a few years ago and now keeps getting better. We bought large knobbly bell peppers, shiny zucchini, and glossy eggplants to roast. We also bought fresh fava beans and pecorino romano cheese, usually a May Day picnic snack but fun to try for visitors. And we bought artichokes, cleaned on request as we paid for armfuls of vegetables while elbow to elbow with other market shoppers and chatting to neighbours. “I can’t believe this is your Saturday!” said our visitor, as we later sat in the sunshine eating pasta. Well, some Saturdays are like that.

Roast artichokes

• 4 artichokes, ready cleaned
• 3 tbs olive oil
• 30 g of grated pecorino cheese
• 40 g of breadcrumbs
• salt and pepper
• 30 g of grated pecorino cheese

Heat oven to 190C. Boil the cleaned artichokes whole in salted water for ten minutes, until they are cooked but still a little crunchy, Prepare an oven proof dish that will fit the sliced artichoke halves in a single layer. Slice them in two lengthwise while still hot. In a shallow dish, mix the breadcrumbs with a pinch of salt, a pinch of pepper and the rated cheese. Dip the artichoke halves in the breadcrumbs and nestle them into the dish. Drizzle olive oil on and around them, packing on a little leftover breadcrumbs if you want. Bake in the middle of the oven for 30 minutes or so. Serve with crisp white wine. Once roasted these are also very nice at room temperature the next day.