Which brings us to today: At the end of Italian class, my very polished Italian teacher pulled on a pair of impossibly small yellow kitchen gloves, dug into a plastic bag and produced an artichoke.
"Una, pulire i carciofi. You wear gloves so your hands don't become black and you can eat the stem, just cut the woody piece of the stem off.
Due, tagliare i carciofi in quarti.In Italian you can use the infinitive to give these directions. Also, put the quartered artichoke in in heavily lemoned water so it doesn't blacken.
Tre, mettere olio, tre spicchi di aglioe poco acqua in una padella.
Quattro, aggiungere poco sale e coprire.
Cinque, cuocere per 15/20 minuti a fiamma moderata."
The way to learning Italian is through my stomach.
Once home, I packed up Ila and we went to the grocers (the one where they all but put on a parade when she comes in, and come close to performing circus tricks to get her to say ciao.) "Vorrei quattro carciofi per favore." I'll let you know how it goes.
Mmm, artichokes are my all-time favorite food, and Little Man loves them, too. I'll email you my favorite artichoke pasta recipe -- you'll love it!
ReplyDeleteOh, I'm holding you to that. I have a great artichoke garlic/parmigiano/mayo/walnut bake thing that my friend M does, but I think fresh artichokes would be wasted on it. The canned or the frozed are good enough. Lets exchange!
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