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Growing and Eating Cardoon

I called Greg Berger recently and he confirmed that cardoon should be started early, noting that it does best in rich soil with lots of organic matter. Like artichokes, cardoon seems to have few pests or diseases. It is a lovely decorative plant in the flower garden, which is where I planted mine. Very vertical in growth habit, it has silver-green leaves with toothed edges. I ended up staking mine to keep it from encroaching on nearby plants.

Frank Gado of White River Junction, Vermont, explained that in the Piedmont district of Italy (in the north-west part, near Turin) farmers dig up cardoon before the first frost in the fall. They lay it in a trench and cover with soil for 2 weeks to blanch it and give it a bittersweet flavor.

Gado prepares a cardoon dish called "bagna cauda". He said, "It is to the people of the Piedmont what haggis is to the Scots." If you meet someone you like, you invite them over for a bagna cauda - which translates loosely as "hot bath." But cardoon goes in the bath, not people.

An evening with bagna cauda is sort of like a '60's fondue party: there is a container of hot olive oil -an inch or two deep- with a whole head of thinly sliced garlic and a can or two of anchovies in it. It is brought to a simmer and kept simmering with a hot plate or flame. Like fondue, you spear food and cook it in the hot oil - the midribs are cut into 1 inch pieces for cooking. But the one key ingredient is always cardoon - Yes, there can be radishes, cubes of beef, celery and perhaps peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms or fennel. But without cardoon, it is not a proper bagna cauda. Gado suggests adding an occasional splash of red wine in the pot to keep the garlic and anchovies from burning.

My Italian-American cookbook offered another way to do it: sauté the ingredients and then spear the pre-cooked pieces from the dish on the flame. In either case, you need loaves of good French bread that you tear - not slice - into pieces and use to catch any drips of oil.

And unlike those fondue parties, in the Piedmont this dish is eaten standing up, preferably with lots of people and talk and dry red wine, particularly one called Barbera. People eat, drink, talk, sit down, drink, talk, get up and cook some more bits of food - washed down with more wine. Very un-American, a good bagna cauda should last 2-3 hours.

For the less adventurous and the garlic adverse, here is the recipe I adapted from Ellen Ogden's wonderful cookbook, "From the Cook's Garden": 1 pound cardoon stalks (1 plant), rinsed clean and towel dried 3 tablespoons unsalted butter 2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour 1 cup milk, heated one half cup grated sharp Cheddar cheese one quarter cup grated Parmesan cheese one quarter cup dried bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 375, and warm an 8 x 11 inch baking dish, lightly buttered. Prepare midribs of leaves by cutting off the leaf portion, and cutting into 4-inch pieces. Cook the cardoon by boiling in lightly salted water for 10 minutes, or until tender. Melt butter and whisk in flour, cooking for 2minutes. Gradually whisk in milk and bring to simmer. Remove from heat and stir in Cheddar cheese. Add salt and pepper to taste. Spread bottom of baking dish with a little sauce, arrange half the stalks in dish, and cover with sauce and half the Parmesan cheese. Repeat and sprinkle with bread crumbs. Bake until top is lightly brown, about 20 minutes.

As much as I love artichokes, you really only get a few tablespoons of food from a plant that takes up a two or three-foot square section of garden. Cardoon has the same flavor, but you get enough from one plant to serve as a side dish for four people. And because it is so vertical, it takes up less space. It is a gorgeous foliage plant that can get to be 3-4 feet tall, so you can plant it in either the flower garden or the vegetable garden. I'm planting at least six this year.

Part of the fun of gardening, for me, is in the eating. Fresh is better than store-bought. And for cardoon, growing your own is probably the only way to have some. Better get started.

Henry Homeyer's new book is "The New Hampshire Gardener's Companion: An Insider's Guide to Gardening in the Granite State." Write him at gardening.guy@valley.net or P.O. Box 364, Cornish Flat, N.H. 03746