Artichokes all Romana..My Favorite

Artichokes alla Romana
A simple and delicious recipe with artichokes from Rome
Ingredients
4 large artichokes, salt and pepper, extra virgin olive oil, garlic, mint leaves or dried mint, one lemon, white wine vinegar.
Making it
Preparation is half the battle with this dish, which will take you at least 5 attempts to perfect.
We don't advise buying tinned artichokes as they will have been excessively preserved in a bitter salty juice and will be too soft.
For this dish, fresh is best.
Saying that, it might be easier to ask the local market to remove the leaves and inside of the artichokes for you as it really is a chore.
Alternatively, prepare the artichokes by pulling each leaf in turn down towards its stem and wait for it too snap off.
Keep going until the leaves change from green to the cream color with red tips. Once here, take a sharp knife and cut straight across the red tips.
Scoop out the needle like leaves inside to reveal a soft fleshy interior.
Trim the stems and cut to leave about 2 inches.
Place the artichokes, stems up, in a pan.
Add the mixture of olive oil, salt, pepper, finely chopped garlic, mint, lemon and a touch of vinegar until the level of the liquid reaches half way up the artichoke bulbs.
Cover the pan and heat up. The dish will fizzle and pop, which is normal, but do check that the artichokes are not sticking to the bottom of the pan.
Half a glass of water will help this process.
Cook for 40 mins until the stems are soft and can be pierced with a fork.
Eat immediately.