We love artichokes. Everyone (excluding Lucia, she’s extremely picky) gets excited about reaching the heart. We ate this version of them for the first time on Mother’s Day with my (Amelia) grandma. Sitting twelve feet away from us (coronavirus), on her own little table with a nice cloth and pretty paper plate, she could not stop exclaiming about how divine they were. She recounted how, as a teacher, she used to come to school with an artichoke for lunch and get looks from other teachers. They would ask, “How can you eat that?” Some teachers, however, would ask for a leaf, because they knew. Artichokes are more than they appear.

When cooked right, artichokes are juicy and meaty with a distinctive, lovely flavor that can only be described as artichoke. During the pandemic, our wonderful friend has bought the giant ones for us at Costco and dropped them off at our door, where we quarantine them for two days before roasting. Since Mother’s Day, the following is the only way we’ve served them. It is pretty much perfect.

A quick warning, they are really pokey and a little tedious to prepare, but not so much that you should be afraid. I recommend sitting down and watching a show while you snip the leaves and cut out the chokes, and covering any cuts acquired during preparation with a bandaid, because you’ll be handling lemon juice later, and ouch.

The Most Delicious Artichokes

Serves 8

• 4 large artichokes (or more smaller ones; recipe can easily be scaled up and down)

• Olive oil

• Kosher salt

• 1 lemon, halved (zested first if planning to make the below mayonnaise sauce)

• 1 cup water
  
  

Heat the oven to 350°.

Holding on to the stem, use a serrated knife to cut the top off the artichoke (the pokiest area, a little less than an inch). Snap off the small, tough leaves around the very bottom. Then use scissors to cut the pointy parts off the top of the remaining leaves (they look like tiny hamster claws).

Slice the artichokes in half and, using a knife and/or scissors, cut out the choke (the innermost purple leaves and white grass-like thing). Put one tablespoon olive oil and 1/2 teaspoon salt on the bottom of a roasting pan with a lid. Rub the artichokes with lemon and put them cut side down in the pan on top of the oil and salt. Squeeze the remaining lemon juice out onto the halves and put the drained lemon halves in the pan. Drizzle another tablespoon of olive oil and sprinkle another teaspoon of salt onto the artichokes, add 1 cup water, cover the pan, and bake them for about an hour (for medium artichokes) or closer to 90 minutes for large ones from Costco. Smaller artichokes may take less time, larger ones might need more. They are ready when you can easily pull off one of the leaves from the exterior of the artichoke.

Serve warm with mayonnaise or a special but simple sauce (below), if you feel like it.

Almost-Aioli Sauce

• 1/2 cup Best Foods/Hellmann’s regular mayonnaise

• Zest of half a lemon

• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped small

Mix together mayo, garlic, and lemon zest in a small bowl. If you love sauce, or if you are preparing more than four artichokes, consider doubling the sauce recipe.