The spring week I spent in Sicily years ago, visiting my husband’s extended family, forever changed the way I see artichokes. The vegetable was in peak season then, and they were so plentiful they showed up wherever you turned — piled high at the market, sold roadside from a truck (10 for 1 euro!), and featured in one creative way or another at nearly every meal we had.
You didn’t hear me complaining — I loved every bite. Now, I reflexively associate spring with artichokes, despite the fact that I mostly cook with frozen artichoke hearts. That said, the season doesn’t get by me without at least a few meals of fresh ones, either stuffed and baked, or steamed and served with a dipping sauce.
Get the recipe: Braised Chicken With Artichokes, Peppers and Sausage
This healthful one-pot dinner brings artichokes into play in a take on one of my favorite Italian-American dishes, chicken scarpariello. The dish of braised chicken with peppers and sausage was one of my go-to orders as a kid when we got to eat at one of the family-run Italian restaurants near our home in Queens. Artichokes are not traditionally used in the braise, but they fit in beautifully, simmered until tender with all of the other ingredients, contributing lovely layers of flavor, color and nutrition.
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Using frozen hearts makes it an effortless addition, and adding a modest amount of chicken sausage, slicing it thinly so there is some in each bite, imbues the dish with sausage flavor while keeping it lighter and more healthful overall. The amount of hot cherry peppers I call for here yields a definite but not overwhelming, mouth-tingling heat, but feel free to add more or less, or leave them out entirely, if you prefer.
Served with a hunk of crusty bread for sopping up the savory sauce, it’s a comforting meal that might read as wintry if it weren’t for the artichokes, which make it ring of spring.
Get the recipe: Braised Chicken With Artichokes, Peppers and Sausage
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