How do I love thee- let me count the recipes!

They say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. Nowhere is that more true than in Italy!

When I want to show my husband how much I care, there are certain recipes I will make for him, some of them are the recipes his mother taught me that are family favorites.

But at least once a year, I really show my love by cooking cardoons.

They take an immense amount of time to prepare.

smaller carducci, from the artichoke plant are a little more bitter.

First you must clean the plant of it’s leaves, which can be toxic.

Then you need to remove the stringy threads from the stalks.

Now the cardoons are ready to be parboiled. I add some lemon and a tbs of flour ( some french trick) to the salted water and cook them until they are tender.

After, they are lightly floured and fried.

Normally I would then finish cooking them in a tomato sauce and serve with parmesan cheese.
They are also lovely just baked with melted butter and parmesan cheese.

Today I followed Francesca’s recipe for baking them with pumpkin, layered with sage and garlic and topped with the parmesan cheese.

I actually bought the smaller carducci, which are the young shoots of the artichoke plants, which are removed from the plants now and a slice off of one of her huge squashes.

Food of love! Andrea ti amo.. at least once a year!

Cardi al Forno- Baked Cardoons

Clean the cardoons of leaves and the stringy threads.
Parboil in salted water, with lemon.
Lightly flour and fry.
Bake with butter and parmesan or in a tomato sauce.

Todays version I layered thinly sliced pumpkin, seasoned with salt, sage and garlic on the bottom of a baking dish.
Top with the fried cardoons and cover with grated parmesan cheese.
Bake until the cheese is golden.

Share with someone you love!