Artichoke Extraordinaire

Why such a grand name? It's all in the sauce actually. I steamed up two beautiful artichokes the other night, which I've done on numerous occasions, but this time I did something a little special with the broth. Using it as a base, I created a pretty delicious, heck let's just say extraordinary, sauce. 

Start by trimming the stem and pointy ends of the leaves so they'll sit nicely in a pan, and you won't get stabbed when you eat them. Add a couple inches of water to a heavy sauce pan, pour in a tablespoon of good olive oil and a teaspoon of salt. Add the artichokes and bring to a boil. Cover the pan and turn to low (so they maintain a slow boil) and cook until the leaves pull out easily (approximately 50 minutes). Remove the artichokes and cover to keep them warm.  Remove any leaves that may be floating in the water.  Drain the liquid until there's a 1/2 inch remaining in the bottom of the pan. Add 1 tablespoon of butter and a teaspoon of olive oil. Cook over medium heat until this reduces by half. Add another tablespoon of butter and cook it slowly so the sauce just starts to thicken a bit.

Pour  over the steamed artichoke, then give them a good healthy squeeze of fresh lemon and sprinkle with your favorite grated cheese. I used Pecorino Romano. Dive in and enjoy! This butter and lemon sauce is infused with artichoke flavor and would also be great over pasta. You could pour it over cappellini and just plop that artichoke on top. After you've eaten the leaves and cleaned off the artichoke bottom, smash it up and mix it into the pasta.