Cleaning Artichokes

The simple fact about an artichoke is this: Part of it is so tender you can slice it and eat it raw, as Italians do in salads; part of it is so tough that no cooking will ever tenderize it. There is nothing wonderful about sitting at table and scraping your teeth against an artichoke leaf to glean a minute amount of edible matter or spitting out an unchewable pellet. The Italian point of view is, if you can’t eat it, why cook it? When you are cleaning artichoke you must be absolutely ruthless and leave nothing on it that might be capable later of bringing you anything but untroubled pleasure. Always keep a lemon or two cut in half by your side while you work. It will keep the artichoke from discoloring and your hands from becoming stained. The procedure described below is applicable to any variety of artichoke, from the globes grown in California to those available in Italy, such as the ones I cleaned for the photographer in the accompanying illustrations.