Mom's Artichokes

In our house, we never had stuffed artichokes. My mom simply cooked them in a pot with very few ingredients.  If you have never tried an artichoke this way, you should.  You really can enjoy the taste and texture of this vegetable. I can say hands down that artichokes are our favorite vegetable. Before I understood that the heart was the best part, my sister Patricia would con me out of it. Here is a tutorial that she created for Facebook on how to cook artichokes. 

Mom always said that April & September are artichoke season!

Yes, you can eat this & it is delicious!  It will get cooked in the bottom of the pot as you will see below.  We called it the "trunza"

 

Yes-the "juice" is great over linguini or capellini & some Parmesan cheese...mmmm!

If you've never eaten an artichoke-scrape the leaves with your teeth.  You can eat most of the inner, softer leaves.  When you get to the heart, use a spoon to scrape out the "choke" (it looks like hairy, pinchy stuff) then eat the whole heart!  And don't forget to eat the trunza too!

Mom's Manicotti

Happy Easter! It was in preparing for Easter that I decided to start this blog. I was longing for my mom's homemade manicotti & looked through my parent's recipes to find it. I had made the shells with her once many years ago & knew that they are pretty easy to make. Mind you, Italian cooking is very simple and true Italian cooks don't really have recipes written down. They just know how to cook. This was my grandmother's recipe that my mom had written down.  When I found it, I had to laugh. Here it is-

Can't get much more simple than that! Don't worry, I will explain it in more detail. Don't be intimidated! They are so easy to make & well worth the effort.

For the shells:

2 cups of flour
2 cups of water
3 eggs
1/4 tsp salt

Mind you, these are not those manicotti shells you buy in the pasta aisle of supermarket. These are the real deal. A true manicotti shell is really a crepe.

So, mix the three ingredients until there are no lumps. Lightly oil a small non-stick pan with vegetable oil.  When the pan is hot, pour about 1/2 cup of the batter in the pan & move it around until the batter covers the bottom of the pan.

When you see that the shell is almost cooked through & little bubbles form flip the shell over. It takes about 1-2 minutes each side. It should be a thin crepe...maybe about 1/4 inch thick .   Stack them on a plate with waxed paper in between each one. 

Ready to flip!

This is what the cooked shell should look like.

They can be made a day or two in advance. Store them stacked with the waxed paper in between each one in a Ziploc bag in the refrigerator. 

One recipe made 10 shells. 

Now for the filling:

This is enough filling for 20 shells. 

2 lbs ricotta

3 eggs

Parmesan cheese (I used @ 1/4 cup)

Fresh  parsley, chopped (I like parsley so I used 1/4 cup)

Salt/pepper to taste

  

Mix the above ingredients. When you are ready to assemble the manicotti, spread some homemade marinara sauce on the bottom of a large pan. Spread some filling down the center of each shell and fold the two sides up. Line them up pretty tightly with the seam side facing down in the pan. Spread sauce over the top of the shells, sprinkle with shredded mozzarella & Parmesan cheese. Cover with foil and bake in a 375 oven for 30 minutes. Remove foil & bake 5 more minutes. 

Here is the finished product.  Enjoy!