Are you familiar with artichokes (carciofi in Italian) ? This vegetable may look like a large thistle at first glance, but connoisseurs consider it to be a great delicacy and recently it has even been described as a so-called superfood.
They are served simply cooked with butter or mayonnaise, roasted or grilled, in pasta salad, stuffed tuna or mixed vegetables, and ready-sterilised tins are also popular, which can be used immediately without further work.
The fragile 'heart', hidden in a large bud beneath the hard petals, is eaten, which must be carefully removed and the inedible hairs from the centre still plucked out. Leave the cleaned hearts in water and lemon before cooking or baking so that they don't darken beforeit is also advisable to work with rubber gloves (artichokes stain the fingers quite a lot).
If you've never tasted artichoke before, try it preferably in Italy (somewhere where they actually know how to prepare it) - grilled or baked or even just on a pizza.
