This Recipe Makes the Most of the Artichoke

Italian home cooking devotees cherish days spent meticulously prepping artichokes and simmering a proper from-scratch tomato sauce. It’s a labor of love, but what’s one to do with those leaves and peels piling up on the countertop? Enter James Beard Award winner Sarah Grueneberg of Chicago favorite Monteverde, along with her scrap-savvy recipe for spaghetti with whole–tomato sauce and artichokes.

Grueneberg starts by working through the artichokes’ tough outer layers until she’s reached the tender heart, then transforms those oft-discarded bits into an aromatic stock. As for the tomatoes, she grates the flesh before sautéing and puréeing the peels with a healthy bunch of basil leaves. Then, she reunites the tomato mixtures and simmers them with garlic and chile flakes until she’s ready for the pasta. After boiling the dried spaghetti, she marries the noodles, tomato sauce, artichoke hearts, and stock in a pan before serving it up with fresh basil and grated cheese. It’s a celebration of beloved Italian flavors with an innovative #WasteNot twist. Get the recipe and make it this weekend.

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The James Beard Foundation's new cookbook, Waste Not: How to Get the Most from Your Food, offers up a host of delicious solutions to the pressing problem of food waste. Featuring 100 recipes from alumni of our Chefs Boot Camp for Policy and Change, Waste Not will teach you how to turn every root, bone, rind, and stem into an irresistible dish.

Waste Not: How to Get the Most from Your Food, published by Rizzoli,​ is on sale now.​ Order your copy today!

Frank Guerriero is the media assistant at the Beard Foundation. Find him on Instagram.