Serves 4
You’ll need:
For the sauce you’ll need:
2 garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped
1 peeled onion, cut into thin slices
60 ml olive oil
Knob of butter
2 anchovy fillets (they’re expensive but critical
and a jar can last for months in the fridge)
4 vine-ripened plum tomatoes, washed and
roughly chopped, skin and all
1 tin whole peeled tomatoes
500 g pasta
4 fresh artichokes
Salt
To make the tomato sauce:
In a saucepan, fry the garlic and onion in olive oil and butter until the onions are translucent. Add the fresh and canned tomatoes. Using your fingers, break up the anchovies into the pan. Let this cook for about half an hour on low heat (it must simmer not boil) until the fresh tomatoes have disintegrated into the sauce. Give the sauce an occasional stir and break up any whole pieces of tomato with your wooden spoon. While the tomato sauce is cooking, start cooking the pasta.
Cut off the artichoke stalks and the bottom two rows of leaves. Soak upside down in heavily salted water for 30 minutes to dislodge any insects and dirt, then boil in salted water for 30 minutes. Taste the bottom leaf of the biggest artichoke. If it’s tender, remove them from the water and cool in a colander. Pull the leaves away from the stem and put them into a bowl. When you reach the heart, be careful to discard the fibres of the white artichoke. Slice the heart finely and add to the bowl. Cover in tomato sauce, give a good but gentle stir, then pour over pasta and eat with
a drizzle of lemon juice and some freshly ground black pepper.
For more recipes and outdoor cooking ideas, read Justin Bonello’s Cooked in Africa: A cooking journey through Southern Africa.
