Food find: baby artichokes

I love it when I go into the grocery store or to the green market and a new seasonal veggie has made its appearance. I especially love it when that veggie is one of my all-time favorites. So you can imagine my giddiness when I ran in to the store to grab some soy milk and stumbled across a display of these beautiful little artichokes. It was all I could do to keep from happy-dancing my way to the cash register. And trust me, the Swiss are not a people that happy-dances in public.

The cool thing about baby artichokes is that they are tender enough for you to eat basically the whole thing. There’s no tough, inedible choke to worry about. Just trim away the toughest outer leaves are you’re good to go.

In Italy these beauties are often eaten raw, sliced super-thin and topped with olive oil, salt, lemon juice, and shaved grana (a cheese similar to parmiggiano but cheaper). But my favorite thing to do with them is make risotto. Guess what we’re having tonight! If I remember, I’ll measure the ingredients before I toss them in and put together a recipe to post on here. Yum – I can’t wait for dinner!