Artichoke Pesto

Due to some miscommunications and a kitchen cabinet that has the ability to hide dry goods within its depths, Tim and I found ourselves the proud owners of not one, not two, but three Costco-sized jars of marinated artichoke hearts recently.

In an effort to work our way through this ridonkulous overabundance of artichoke hearts, I did some Googling on ye olde interwebs and found this artichoke-centric recipe for lemony artichoke pesto.  I followed the recipe, a pretty standard pesto, for the most part, but substituted fresh basil leaves for the parsley, as flat leaf parsley is nowhere to be found in Jakarta.  My nut of choice (or convenience, really) was almonds, toasted, of course.  

Good stuff!  I put it on pizza, topped with mozzarella, halved cherry tomatoes and mushrooms.  It looks pretty good as a pasta sauce, too.  A fun, but not too crazy, adaptation of your typical pesto.

White Swiss Chard and Artichoke Pizza

Imagine your favorite creamy spinach and artichoke dip- creamy, garlicky, full of veggies- but imagine it on a pizza. That's basically what this white swiss chard and artichoke pizza recipe is. I used Swiss chard because that's what the CSA was serving up this week, but I bet you could substitute spinach, kale, maybe even collard greens if you prefer. The only changes I made to the recipe was to use marinated artichoke hearts, to add a little pinch of red pepper flakes, and to forget to add the Worcestershire sauce. I put it on my go-to whole wheat pizza dough from the other Martha.

Cauliflower and Feta Baked Pasta

I had a bunch of cauliflower from the CSA, as well as a block of feta, so I decided to make this baked pasta recipe, which incorporated both. However, I amped it up by adding several of my own ingredients for more flavor: crushed red pepper and garlic were roasted with the cauliflower along with a couple small heads of fennel (cut into eighths), plus I threw in a can of artichokes which I'd sliced. Over all, it was really tasty (although not picturesque). Salty, full of veggies, and infinitely reheatable for work lunches.

Eggplant/Tomato/Mozzarella Panini with Artichoke Caper Spread

Got a mixture of different types of eggplant from the CSA this week and was craving something cheesy and melty. Eggplant panini it was!

My first attempt was somewhat of a FAIL, as I cut the bread (a cheapie ciabatta from the Giant bakery... Columbia Heights needs a legit bread bakery like crazy... I heard rumors of one thinking of opening in the area, but it's not set in stone by any means) horizontally rather than vertically, and it was waaaaay too fat... too big to fit in one's mouth (that's what she said!). The second time I cut vertical slices from the bread and it was much easier to manage.

The artichoke/caper/parsley spread was awesome, though. Hearty, a little salty, fresh, a hint of creaminess from the mayo. Based on this recipe, but with the addition of fresh parsley to brighten it up.

The eggplant was sliced thinly, salted for 20 minutes or so, then grilled. Thrown on the bread with some yellow heirloom tomato, the artichoke spread, grated mozzarella, squished and grilled.

Artichokes Steamed in White Wine and Lemon

We haven't had fresh artichokes in years for some reason, but when I stopped by Trader Joe's this weekend, the artichokes jumped off the shelf at me. I thought this recipe looked good: artichokes steamed in a white wine, lemon, garlic and thyme broth... it was super easy and really good.

However, as we learned listening to Tim as he ate his artichoke: fresh artichokes are not for the lazy man. Tim complained, "This seems like a lot of effort." He also added "My arms hurt," which I am assuming is from doing push-ups, not lifting oh-so-heavy artichoke leaves from the lemon butter dip to his mouth... but you never know with Tim.

Chicken Scaloppini

Martha is in town and she's craving pasta. We had the majority of the ingredients for this chicken scalopini recipe with artichokes, mushrooms, capers and pancetta, so we decided to give it a try.

This was really tasty. Since it's a Paula Deen recipe, it requires an entire pound of butter in the lemon sauce... don't go there. We made it with a quarter of that and it was still rich and delicious. Even Martha, who would eat a butter ice cream cone if she could, thought it was great with just one stick of butter.