Artichoke Soup with Light Herbed Matzoh Balls

When visiting food markets, I always go for the artichokes. I cannot munch on them raw, and I rarely have a kitchen on my travels where I could prepare them. Instead, I’ve dried big-hearted, long-stemmed beauties and graceful amethyst babies from produce stalls in California, Brittany, Provence, and Rome (the foreign-born smuggled, well wrapped and hidden beneath a pile of laundry).

At home the bouquets of fat artichokes slowly unfurl, revealing spiky fluff centers colored vivid Cra