I saw this fruit (veg?) floating in water in a produce stand near the Ghetto in Venice. I can't find anyone, even friends that lived in Italy, that knows what it is. I have gotten suggestions of artichoke and fennel bulb but they were both guesses. I've Googled images and and found pictures of both but neither looks quite the same. If anyone KNOWS what this is, please take pitty on me and solve this mystery.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12036114@N05/

It's an artichoke heart, pre-trimmed. It's in the acidulated water so it doesn't turn brown.

Hello mdod

It is no fruit. It is a vegetable. An artichoke to be precise. The heart.

At the Rialto Market, there are many stalls that sell artichokes. Usually you see a guy sitting on a stool with a big pile of them. He has a knife, paring away the leaves, and then puts the heart into the water.

That's my guess . . .

I know them well..my husband has a thing for artichoke frittatas.

You guys are awesome! Thanks!

An artichoke fritatta sounds great..any hints on how you do it?

Oh sure. Not too hard once you've trimmed the artichokes, that's the hard part. We use the recipie from Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Italian Cooking book. I will type it up and post it if you'd like.

Thanks Sandi!

I have Marcella's book, in fact last night I made her Bolognese sauce from there!

Ingredients:
2 med. artichokes
1/2 lemon
1 tsp garlic chopped fine
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp parsley chopped fine
salt and fresh pepper
5 eggs
1/4 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano
2 tbsp butter
1/3 cup of water

1. Trim artichokes. (won't go into all that detail here..look it up)
2. Once cleaned, cut artichokes lengthwise into very thin slices and squeeze lemon juice on it. (we put ours in a small bowl of water w/ lemon juice in it)
3. Put garlic and oil in oven-proof skillet and turn heat to medium. Saute garlic till pale gold add artichokes, parsley salt and 2 or 3 grinds of pepper. cook for a minute making sure the artichokes have been turned and are completely coated with oil.
4. Add 1/3 cup of water, ut lid on pan and cook till very tender-about 15 min. If water is left in pan after artichokes are tender, remove lid and cook the water away.
5. Tip the pan, push artichoke mixture to the upended part of the pan and spoon off any oil that collects at the bottom. Remove mixture to a seperate bowl while pan cools
6. Beat eggs in a bowl then add atichoke mixture to the eggs, add a pinch of salt and the grated parm. Melt butter in the panand add egg mixture when butter begins to foam and turn the heat to low.
7. Turn on your oven broiler
8. When the eggs have set and thickened and are only runny on the surface, put the skillet under the broiler for a few minutes until browned.

You can obviously improvise on some of the ingredients and we love to drizzle balsamic vinegar over it...


Turn heat to low

oops, forget the last bit...

We've made this so often that when you open the book it flops open to this page!