would you like some artichoke with that artichoke?

Apparently I am on an artichoke kick. Ryan's been requesting his favorite dish, but I wasn't in the mood for pasta. Instead, I used some elements from that dish (artichokes, mushrooms, cream) in a sauce to pour over the chicken, and then adapted an old Gourmet recipe for artichoke-prosciutto risotto. And as I write this, I have pizza dough rising to make prosciutto-artichoke-mushroom pizzas for dinner tonight. I blame it on those two fake Spring days earlier this week. I can't bring myself to bring the overpriced, not-tasty asparagus so I settled for a bag of frozen artichoke hearts instead.

And is there something about elections that irritates the weather gods? I was in Iowa visiting relatives a couple days before their primary, and there was all this talk of how it was going to be snowstorming like crazy the day of the voting and how it might hinder potential voters, even though it was fine when I was there. And now that Ohio is having its primary, after two yummy 60 deg days, I was fighting to keep my umbrella from turning inside out when heading to my polling location this morning. Not like a little rain is going to keep me from going - and even my somewhat apathetic fiance promised to vote this time around! You do know how important it is for you to vote, right? But only after you've educated yourself about all the candidates, right? I can't believe the number of people I've heard say they only know about the national races, but then instead of ignoring the races they know nothing about just RANDOMLY PICK SOMEONE. Seriously? That does not help at all.

All right, annoying/self-righteous sidebar over. Does artichoke count as a healthy food? Even when paired with all the fat and salt in prosciutto, parmesan, and cream? No? OK, too bad ... I have been a bad little food blogger lately (mainly because I have cooked about zero interesting or new things) and have also been not-so-good with eating my vegetables, so this will have to do as my contribution to Sweetnick's ARF/5-a-day Tuesdays. Check out Cate's site later tonight for the roundup.

Artichoke-Prosciutto Risotto

(serves 2-4, depending on how large you like your servings)

adapted from February 1991 Gourmet

2 c chicken broth, mixed with 2 c H20

4 tsp olive oil, divided

1 small onion, minced

1/4 c prosciutto, cut into 1/4-inch dice

1 c Arborio rice

1/3 c dry white wine

1/2 c frozen artichoke hearts, thawed and cut into bite-size pieces

1/4-1/3 c freshly grated Parmesan

salt and pepper to taste

1. Bring the broth/water mix to a slight simmer in a small saucepan

2. In a medium sauce pan, heat 2 tsp olive oil over medium heat and saute onion until translucent; add prosciutto and saute a few minutes longer

3. Add rice and remaining oil to medium sauce pan, and stir to coat rice, about 1 min

4. Increase heat and add wine, stirring for a couple minutes to let it reduce while keeping rice from sticking to bottom of pan

5. Reduce heat back to medium and add 1/2 c of simmering broth, and begin stirring. The idea is to get the starch on the grains to rub off so the risotto turns creamy. Every 3-5 minutes, once the previous ladleful of broth has been absorbed, add another ladleful.

6. After about 20-25 min (you should still have broth left), add the artichokes and a little bit more broth, stirring to incorporate.

7. Taste to see if the rice is approaching al dente. If it is, stir in the cheese and adjust the salt/pepper to taste. If it is not, continue with step 5 for a few more repetitions before adding the cheese.