artichokes - Judith pa amb tomaquet

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Wow......artichokes!

 

, judith bell <judithb wrote:

 

>.............. I lo-o-o-o-ove fresh artichoke hearts more than any >edible

thing on this Earth.........

 

Me to! It is not only my favorite vegetable, it is my favorite food.

 

There is a long list for my #2 favorite vegetable(s) (green beans, okra, peas,

eggplants, tomatoes, cauliflowers, ....), but artichokes have the seat all to

themselves on slot #1.

 

So now I have 21 artichokes growing in the garden, in 3 varieties. The nicest

site the other day, one of the chokes poking upwards and 4 little chokes behind

on my largest plant!

 

I am planning to have enough of them for artichoke ravioli, yum yum...

 

 

> I love the Spanish pa amb oli where they " scrub " the surface of the >bread

w/fresh tomato & scrub hard again w/raw garlic. Then drizzle >w/olive oil.

 

I am originally from that part of the world (Catalonia). We have pa amb oli,

and pa amb tomaquet. Pa amb oli is simply bread and olive oil. Pa amb tomaquet

is similar to what you described. Baguettes are very popular there and I use

baguettes to make pa amb tomaquet in California. Split baguette in half length

wise, slightly toast, rub a juicy tomato half all over the bread so the pulp and

juice goes in the bread. All you are left with is the skin of the tomato on

your hand. This is done with a special tomato variety specially grown to do

exactly that, but i manage with any good tasting tomato I can get my hands on.

Now drizzle some olive oil on the tomato rubbed bread, and do not forget! some

salt. The whole is a lot greater than the sum of its parts, for some reason.

This sounds weird when you describe it, and people cannot believe how good it is

once they try it. Now, if you are in the mood, pa amb tomaquet i all, rub a

peeled clove of garlic on the toasted bread surface before the tomato (or else

the bread will be to soft to rub garlic). Proceed with the tomato, olive oil and

salt.

 

When you order a sandwich in Catalonia, you can ask for it dressed like that,

the most common way actually.