Cardoons

Appears in

Published 2000

About

Cardoons look like giant bunches of celery except a bit more rough-and-tumble, with scraggly leaves and discolored ends. Although the cooked stalks have a flavor reminiscent of artichokes, cardoons have a subtle and distinctive flavor all their own.

I first read about them in Remembrance of Things Past when Marcel sits down to a plate of cardons à la moelle—cardoons with beef marrow. Years later I saw cardoons in an Italian market in Manhattan and dragged off a huge bundle to my restaurant to be served as the evening special, cardons à la moelle. Alas, I found cardons à la moelle a bit disappointing—cardoons have an understated flavor, and the bechamel sauce called for in Larousse Gastronomique didn’t help matters much.