Pappardelle with Lemon, Baby Artichokes, and Asparagus

We enjoyed this dish very much.My review is based on a few changes that I made, not on the recipe as written. First, as other reviewers noted, using canned artichokes was just fine. In fact, the slight briny taste added an interesting flavor note to the dish. I used two cans of whole artichokes, drained *well*, and halved. I browned them in olive oil with salt and a bit of garlic. I then sautéed the asparagus in a bit of lemon-infused olive oil with salt and pepper. All went into a bowl with the rind and parsley, per the recipe. In the pan, I heated the oil, salt and pepper, and a dab of butter for extra creaminess, and added the pasta water, stirring to emulsify the mixture. I added the drained pasta and mixed well to coat the pasta, which then went into the bowl with the veggies, and added the cheese (a mixture of parm and pecorino). The dish was well-seasoned and flavorful, with no one flavor dominating, came together easily, and was pretty on the plate. We enjoyed this a lot, with its nice spring flavors, and will definitely make it again.

Are you mad? The only reason to go to that much time and trouble with an artichoke is if you are serving the whole vegetable to be eaten leaf by leaf down to the choke. There are perfectly good frozen or canned artichokes available and Trader Joe's has an awesome canned product of beautiful whole artichokes. So leaving out the whole tiresome process with the chokes, this turned out to be a so-so dish. I would prefer to have a creamy light sauce with maybe a bit of Gorgonzola. We will see.

I was so disappointed with how this turned out, especially considering the expensive ingredients this recipe calls for. I followed the recipe exactly, but we found the final product to be so bland and boring. I will not make this again.

I added green olives, red peppers and red onions to the pasta to give stretch it a bit more. The lemon and thyme were OK, but not my favorite flavors together. They were both a little too overwhelming so you couldn't taste the rest of the great veggies.

This recipe is awesome. I used canned artichokes (much easier), roasted the asparagus, and added a little lemon juice to them. With the lemon zest, it's wonderful. Served it with a dry French white burgundy--perfect!