Artichoke sauce

The artichoke is a very common vegetable in Italian markets and supermarkets in late winter and spring. It has a strong, tasty flavour and can make a truly unique contribution to many different dishes, from starters to main courses. You just need to taste artichoke risotto, for example, to understand how they can give flavour and character to a dish without any particular additional ingredients. It’s not necessary to add ham, cheese, bacon or anything else to get a really succulent dish! It’s from this basic premise that we wanted to inspire you. How do you make a top notch artichoke sauce without having to resort to the addition of other flavours or fat? Our chef succeeded, creating in a lovely light sauce, with lots of flavour and very few calories. And it is an alternative to the more usual pasta with tomato sauce, a budget sauce and one which is very healthy. In short, let’s see how to make such a special sauce, and one which is a little out of the ordinary! If you really want to create a superlative combination, on this website you can find a recipe for combining the sauce with sausages: I would say, the perfect match!

Peel and prepare the artichokes including their stems. Soak immediately in water with some added lemon juice. Cut each artichoke-half into thin slices and put it back in the water, to prevent oxidation and thus discolouration. When you’ve prepared all your artichokes you can concentrate on the sauce to add during cooking. Take the onion and chop it coarsely into chunks, also the garlic, remove the stems from the parsley; put everything into a tall, narrow container. Add an anchovy and oil till everything is covered. Now blitz with a hand blender. Heat a frying pan and a small saucepan. Add some oil to the frying pan and when it is hot, throw in the thinly cut artichokes and salt. A few moments later, add a few tablespoons of the sauce and a little water; continue to cook, being careful not to dry it out and burn it. In the little saucepan use the same procedure for the artichoke stems, which will require more cooking time and more water. When they are cooked, keep them in a little water and blitz with the blender. Combine with the creamy mixture that you get from the stalks with the fried artichokes and you will suddenly have an artichoke sauce which will make your head spin! We recommend this artichoke sauce with paccheri pasta.