Artichoke Pesto Pasta...

One of the wonderful things you can do with the pesto recipe I included in my herb post is make it!

I crave pesto every now and again.  This time I wanted to change it up a little bit and all it took was one can of whole artichoke hearts!  Pesto itself is already cheap and if you can find a can of artichokes for a decent price, this meal will go a long way.

Artichokes are amazing things that I'm told can grow in Canada.  You have to take them indoors in the winters though which can provide a problem.  Its a lot of work for the average gardener.  We planted artichokes last year, but tended to forget about them.  They didn't get a lot of attention, but we left them outdoors in the ground and placed buckets over top of them until its warmer.  Fingers crossed, they will survive.  Artichokes take 2-3 years before you can harvest the "fruits"  wqhich are actually their flower blossums.  You can let them go to flower and they are a beautiful additional to your flower garden.  Who could resist picking them though????

According to Cam Mather's book The All You Can Eat Gardening Handbook "artichokes are an excellent source of the B vitamins, including Thiamin (B1), Riboflavin (B2), Niacin (B3), B5, B6,  and Folate (B9).  They are also high in vitamin C, calcium, magnesium, and phosphorous.

Basically, they are healthy and wholesome!!!

I added a whole can of artichokes (halved and then quartered) and sauteed them in the pesto for about 10min on med-high heat.  The artichokes took on the flavour of the oil and the garlic pretty quickly.

Its not the most colourful meal, but its packed with flavour and nutritional goodness.

So all you need to make this dish is to prepare the pasta to your taste and add the heated artichoke mixture to the warm, drained noodles.  Toss and serve!

All it took for the sauce was a couple of heaping tablespoons of prepared pesto and a 1 can of whole artichokes, quartered.  It was like the ultimate in fast food!

(I made it again this week with cheese tortellini and it was even more AWESOME!!!)

See my previous post on herbs for the easy pesto recipe you can make and store!

What's your go-to-easy-to-make recipe?