Garlicky Artichoke Pasta

Toss a popular tapas dish, alcachofas al ajillo, with linguine to make delicious garlicky artichoke pasta, a quick and easy weeknight meal. 

Alcachofas al Ajillo or garlicky artichokes are a traditional tapas dish from Spain made with fresh, frozen or canned artichokes, lots of garlic and chili pepper. I like to add in some small tomatoes as well, for flavor and color. 

This is normally served with drinks as part of an appetizer course but it is so simple to make and so flavorful that we love to eat it with pasta to sop up the lovely garlicky buttery sauces. 

Garlicky Artichoke Pasta

This recipe serves two as a main dish. It is also easily doubled or trebled to feed more. If you scale up, don’t skimp on the garlic. That’s what makes this dish so good!

Ingredients

1 can (drained weight 5.8 oz or 165g) small artichoke hearts

1/4 cup or 60ml virgin olive oil

1 rounded tablespoon butter

8 large cloves garlic

10 grape or cherry tomatoes

1 small red chili pepper

Fine sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper 

Few sprigs fresh parsley, hard stems removed, roughly chopped

7 oz or 200g pasta, cooked to manufacturer’s instructions

Optional to serve: Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Method

Drain the artichokes well and rest them open side down in a strainer or on some paper towels so they can dry even more. 

Finely mince the cloves of garlic and cut the tomatoes in half.

Split the chili pepper down the middle but leave it in one piece. This is purely aesthetic because I like the look of a whole split chili pepper. Feel free to chop it if you prefer. The seeds can be removed to lessen the spiciness of the dish. Finely chop the parsley. 

Heat half of the olive oil along with the butter in a large non-stick skillet over a medium high flame.  Tip in the well-drained artichoke hearts. Cook for about 6-7 minutes on one side, until they are turning golden in places. Turn them gently so the artichokes can color on both sides. 

Add in the chopped garlic, tomatoes, the chili pepper and the rest of the olive oil. Lower the flame to medium and cook the garlic until softened, making sure to stir often to keep it from burning. 

When the garlic is starting to color slightly and the tomatoes have wrinkled, turn the heat off. Sprinkle the top with salt and a few good grinds of black pepper and stir again. Stir in the chopped parsley. 

Add the hot, cooked pasta to the pan and toss well to mix the garlicky artichokes with the pasta. In the spirit of tapas, serve with a cold beer or your favorite red wine. 

I also like to put out a block of Parmesan and a microplane grater and let everyone add their own cheese. 

Enjoy!

This month my Foodie Extravaganza friends are sharing recipes that start with a can in honor of National Canned Food Month, in some cases many cans! Many thanks to our host, Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm. 

• Baked Beans Curry from Sneha's Recipe
• Chicken Spaghetti from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Garlicky Artichoke Pasta from Food Lust People Love  
• Homemade “Better Than Canned” One-Pot Chili by Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice
• Italian Pot Roast from Making Miracles 
• Pulao from Magical Ingredients
• Scalloped Tuna Bake from Palatable Pastime  
• Spam Musubi by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Ragù Bolognese from  Karen's Kitchen Stories 

Foodie Extravaganza is where we celebrate obscure food holidays by cooking and baking together with the same ingredient or theme each month. Posting day is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook page Foodie Extravaganza. We would love to have you! If you're a spectator looking for delicious tid-bits check out our Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest Board.

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