Spaghetti with Artichoke Cream

The aftertaste of artichoke is so delicate and fresh that you won't even need to brush your teeth after your meal. I wish my toothpaste tasted like artichoke.
I got the inspiration for this dish after my last visit in Rome. I went to " Al Pompiere" http://www.alpompiereroma.com/, an awesome restaurant specialized in Roman-Jewish Cuisine and they served me this amazing plate of  Tonnarelli with Artichoke and Pecorino.
This is my own way of bastardizing the recipe.

For the sauce you will need:

• Artichoke heart ( if you have the fresh one then it is great, I have used the one in the can...)
• Garlic Cloves
• extra Virgin Olive Oil 
• Parmiggiano ( Pecordino Romano is better)
• Vegetable Stock-
• Salt and Pepper to taste

 Start by pan frying the garlic with some extra virgin olive oil. Add the chopped artichokes to the pan and saute them for 5 minutes. Add 1 or 2 ladles of Vegetables Stock, cover the pan and let it cook for 15 more minutes or until the artichoke are nice and tender. I have added 2 table spoon of double cream just to create a nice cream with the tender artichoke and the grated Parmiggiano ( be generous).

Cook the spaghetti " al dente" and add it to the pan with the sauce for few minutes so that the sauce can marry with the spaghetti. Drizzle with some Extra Virgin olive oil and freshly ground pepper.

Spaghetti with Zucchini pesto and Zucchini pan-fried Dices.

When I make pasta with zucchini I normally pan-fry the diced zucchini with oil and garlic, add some herbs like thyme and basil and that’s it. The problem for me is that unless you are lucky to have lots of zucchini dices in your bite, your spaghetti bite will only contain the infused oil that remains in the pan. This is not enough! So I decided to make a cream of zucchini to go with the chunks of pan-fried zucchini, in order to have a zucchini explosion in my mouth.

You’ll need:

·      2 zucchini

·      Ricotta cheese or Philadelphia

·      6/7 leaves of Basil

·      A clove of Garlic

·      Extra virgin olive oil

·      Salt and pepper

How to make it:

I have pan-fried the zucchini with some oil and a crushed clove of garlic, season it with some salt and pepper and once they were tender I have blend half of the zucchini with some ricotta cheese just for texture (don’t add too much cause you want the zucchini to be the star), some olive oil and basil until you form a creamy pesto. When the spaghetti is ready, add them to the pan with the zucchini pesto and serve it with the dices of zucchini on top.