Leaves from my Sant'Ambrogio Market Cookbook

I bought these artichokes a week ago and have been wondering what to with them. Rowley Leigh - in the FT magazine - recently complained about the UK habit of boiling the hell out of artichokes. But then they are so rare, He suggested making a gratin of the hearts but his recipe used 200ml of olive oil - that's a fifth of a litre.

But I sort of prepared the artichokes (carciofi) as he had instructed taking off the outer leaves and then cutting the tops of the remainder off and scooping out the hairy chokes with a teaspoon.

While roasting the chicken I put them in the oven face down in a bit of olive oil to roast. They have turned out rather well although I could have removed a few more of the outer leaves.

I present them here in our new IKEA bowl.

Handsome.