The trick to artichoke hearts and spaghetti is three fold.

  1. you need brass extruded spaghetti. Not Teflon. If you hunt around you can find it for $3 instead of $8 a pound.
  2. you want grilled artichoke hearts. These cost more. But no other will due.
  3. this isn’t a marinara. You gotta do the whole toss in the pan with some of the pasta water to finish cooking it.

Bonus: red pepper flakes. If you don’t add them you messed up

Butter, spaghetti, red pepper flakes, artichoke hearts, parmesan, pasta water. That’s it. That’s the whole thing. Well, that’s the whole thing if you properly salt your pasta water.

Make sure to add the parm both to the pan stage and a little for garnish.

It’s got flavor. It’s got texture.

If it’s in the budget add some lemon juice and Italian parsley.

Cost per person: $3.82

  • FauxPseudo @lemmy.worldOPM
    4·
    2 months ago

    I look at the price of whole artichokes and back away. We tried growing them and they failed. As a kid we’d eat whole artichokes stuffed with bread crumbs. But they could only be an appetizer. Never a meal.

    • JohnnyEnzyme@piefed.socialEnglish
      3·
      2 months ago

      Seems like every fluffing thing’s more expensive now, but it used to be that the local store had good prices on 'chokes, here and there. Now I’m curious to see what prices will be like in the coming harvest season. They’re typically grown in California (I think), but from the little research I did, it doesn’t seem like the rest of the country should have that much variance in price, based on shipping. Regardless, I’m going to try grilling some hearts, next opportunity…

      • FauxPseudo @lemmy.worldOPM
        3·
        2 months ago

        In San Diego my grandma had them growing growing in the backyard. It’s the perfect climate for thistle. Thistle likes to grow here in Lesser Carolina but we couldn’t get the artichokes to do more than get tall.

        • JohnnyEnzyme@piefed.socialEnglish
          2·
          2 months ago

          They do sound really tricky to grow to get the edible thistle-flowers. From what I’m seeing (among other things), they need a sustained, cool winter in order to produce the necessary vegetation and buds, something not usual for the SE, it seems.