illustrated recipes: march

what better way to celebrate the beginning of spring in rome than to take advantage of the explosion of globe artichokes that overflows on market stalls around every corner?

My mama has always cooked a lot of artichokes, this round, typically roman variety when we lived here, and other varieties in australia, but i never really appreciated them until i got a little bit older, and i never had the patience to learn how to clean them and cook them. until i figured out it wasn't so hard at all.

artichokes / carciofi are beautiful to draw too. now, because this is not a cooking blog and the illustrated recipes give importance to drawings rather than precise methods and culinary perfection, i recommend you head over to rachel's artichoke post if you want clear instructions on cleaning and prepping the chokes, other than this, it's super simple and delicious.

took me a while to post this as i needed to finish the roll of film on the canon A1. bear with me!

the print for this and other recipes can be bought here.

"..and the sweet

artichoke
there in the garden,
was dressed as a warrior,
burnished
like a grenade and proud,
and one day
assembled with its fellows
in large wicker baskets,
it walked
through the market
to make its dream of
soldiery
come true."

from Ode to the Artichoke
  - pablo neruda