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!