Artichokes from Gus and Carmel's stall at Queen Victoria Market. Photographer Graeme Gillies, food stylist Fiona Rigg. Both worked on my book, Sicilian Seafood Cooking

I have been eating so many artichokes lately!

The green artichokes have been in season for a few moths now (see photo above) but soon we will have the purple tinged ones – all Victorian produce.

There are many ways to eat them, but friends always ask me to stuff them. I think that they wait for the artichoke season and then ask to be invited to my place to eat them. The trouble is that the numbers of friends are growing and I seem to be cooking stuffed artichokes 1-2 times a week; one week I prepared them three times.

Photographer Graeme Gillies, food stylist Fiona Rigg. Both worked on my book, Sicilian Seafood Cooking

I was in Adelaide last weekend and my brother cooked stuffed artichokes for me. He uses egg and no cheese in his stuffing so I was pleased that they were a little bit different. He added peas (which I often do) and we had the peas, stalks and juice as a pasta dressing and the stuffed artichoke as a second course.

I have written recipes about artichokes on this blog before. See: