With our busy lives with work, school, or whatever we do, most people feel like they don’t have the time to cook dinner at home and think that good food requires at least a dozen ingredients. The thing is that neither of those things are true and it’s very easy to make delicious food with much fewer ingredients.

This dish that I’m about to show you of fettuccine with artichokes requires 5 ingredients to make: pasta, artichokes, lemons, pancetta, and cheese, but the depth of flavor that you can achieve with those ingredients is mind-blowing. Not only that, but this dish takes less than 40 minutes to complete! Now that’s a recipe for a delicious weeknight dinner if I’ve ever seen one.

How to Prepare Artichokes

Artichokes are a delicious vegetable that I feel like couldn’t be more underrated. It also happens to be my mom’s favorite vegetable. Sure, you can buy artichoke hearts, but you’ll get a much more fresh flavor when you take fresh artichokes and prepare them yourselves. It’s easier than you might think.

If any of the artichokes have a long stem, you’ll want to cut that up to about an inch from the base, that stem can be quite fibrous. Take each artichoke and plucking off the dark green outer leaves and stop when you see the yellow/brighter green leaves towards the center. Don’t throw away the artichoke leaves and stems, by the way, they make a delicious veggie stock.

Once you get to the yellow leaves, feel where the solid base of the artichoke no longer feels firm, then cut right above that firm base. Use a spoon to scoop out the hairy choke found right above the artichoke hearts, then immediately rub each heart with half of a lemon to keep them from oxidizing.

From there, you can leave the artichoke hearts whole or slice it, depending on what you plan on making.

Fettuccine with Artichokes

Serves 4

Salt
8 large artichokes
1 lemon, juiced
7 ounces of diced pancetta
1 pound of fettuccine pasta, fresh or dried
2 ounces of grated pecorino, plus more for topping

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Prepare the artichokes as directed above, but leave any finished hearts in a bowl of water mixed with the lemon juice. Once all of the artichokes are prepared, take out each one and thinly slice, then return any sliced artichokes to the water.
Cook the pancetta in a wide frying pan over medium-low heat until it’s browned and crisp. You don’t need to add any oil as the pancetta will release a good amount of fat.
Reserve the pancetta with a slotted spoon and pour off all but about 1-2 tablespoons of their drippings. Drain the sliced artichoke, then add to the pan with the drippings. Add some water, then cover the pan and cook for about 10-15 minutes, or until the artichokes are very tender.
Meanwhile, cook the pasta according to the directions on the package for al dente. Reserve a cup of the pasta water, then drain.
Once tender, Dump half of the artichokes into a blender or small food processor and blend until very smooth, adding some of the pasta water if needed. Pour the blended artichokes back into the pan along with the pancetta, pasta, cheese, and a splash of the pasta water, then cook for about a minute, or until the sauce is thickened to your liking.
Divide everything among 4 plates, then top with more grated pecorino.