our italian friend has been round again this afternoon, he says that gobbo, looks like artichoke but bigger, is good to eat, from what i can gather, we have to boil until tender and then saute for a couple of minutes in garlic and oil, did i understand him correctly?

nah! artchoke? is completly different take a look here http://www.cibo360.it/alimentazione/cibi/verdura/cardo.htm
for the recepie add to them to saute garlic oil butter anchovies salate (salty) and parmigiano gratted.....yummy

The funny thing about cardi was lots of tourists thought it was celery: what a nasty shock!

They and their artichoke cousins are members of the thistle family, and yes, in desperate need of cooking.

Bernardo's right: garlic and anchovies marry beautifully with cardi. Talk about yum!

arrrrr!!! they are cardoons, well why didn't he just say that?? i didn't know you could eat them, but he has broken a stalk off for me and i'll strip the stringy bits off, rub the small hairs off, cut it into 1 inch chunks, boil until tender and saute in oil, ghee, garlic and anchovies and then throw it in the bin because no one will eat it.......lol!

A restaurant across from me dips them in batter and deep fries them. Really good.

After boiling them for the requisite time.

Gobbo? Doesn't that mean hunchback? Fried .. boiled .. hmmm. Must be a northern Italian thing.

quote:

Originally posted by Graeme:
After boiling them for the requisite time.

So that's where I'm going wrong

What do Neopolitans do with them? Or is that a personal question?!

I think Delina was pondering the cruelty to hunchbacks by Northern Italians.

Well, definitely a personal question then!