Tag: artichokes

Everyone loves pasta, but during hot summer days a bowl of steaming pasta doesn't sound that appealing.

Some people make cold macaroni salads, but I think pasta is not meant to be eaten cold and besides, those macaroni salads usually have mayonnaise in them and fill you up too much. The Italians have an ideal solution. Basically it's a dish of hot pasta that cools down by virtue of being tossed with uncooked ingredients. They call it a salsa cruda. This is a raw sauce used with pasta. It's quite popular during a hot summer.

Spring is here and the steady stream of fresh produce arriving into your local market is about to begin. Some of the first vegetables of spring include artichokes. Artichokes are very healthy, plus peeling off petals while dipping them and scraping them against your teeth make artichokes fun to eat for the whole family.

Artichokes are an excellent source of potassium and magnesium—they are also a good source of folic acid. Here are a few pointers on picking, storing and preparing the freshest and the best tasting artichokes of the season.