Cardoons Brindisi / Cardi alla Brindisina

Cardoons are a winter vegetable, though they continue to grow into the spring, Cardoons are members of the thistle family as are artichokes and bear a strikingly similar taste to them. People shine way from this vegetable because it is often not available and is a bit time consuming to prepare, but you can find them already cleaned in many grocery stores. They are 18 to 22 inch long, pale green to white stalks ribbed like celery, but with sharper edges. Some are straight but the most sought after are curved, a feature that results in their being nicknamed gobbi, or hunchbacks. From a botanical standpoint they’re close cousins of the artichoke, but do not produce flowers — what one eats is the stalk, whose preparation requires a certain amount of care. Cardoons are quite fibrous; the fibers run lengthwise, like those in celery stalks, and must be stripped out. Once they have been cut they darken quickly (like artichokes) unless put in lightly acidulated water.

Serves four