An artichoke alone does not make Spring. However an artichoke along with asparagus and radishes, yes! Saturday was a beautiful day, and I had on my table a basket full of pioppini mushrooms just picked by my dad. I made a vegetable omelette with asparagus and radishes, and I’ve kept a bit of them to make the rat-tail dumplings (a coda de soreca).

Well, for the dumplings I’ve mixed asparagus, radishes, mushrooms and a bit of tomato. At the end we had a spring lunch not bad!

Recipe: Risotto

Cuisine: Italian

Servings: 4 people

• 600 g of long dumplings
• a bunch of asparagus and radishes
• 1 roman artichoke
• 1 tomato
• Pioppini mushrooms (Agrocybe aegerita)
• olive oil
• salt
• chilli

Wash vegetables and mushrooms. Clean out asparagus and radishes removing the hardest parts. Do the same with the artichoke, removing the outer leaves and the tips. Cut everything into small pieces, separating tomato pieces from the rest.

For the sauce: in a nonstick pan prepare a souteed with garlic, olive oil and chilli. After that add asparagus, radishes, artichokes and the mushrooms. When mushrooms become softened and before they are completely cooked, add the diced tomatoes. Let cook for 5 minutes and turn off.

Cook the dumplings for 3 minutes, drain and pan-fry all with the sauce.