Pezzini Farms is a perfect farmstand-meets-gourmet-food-shop, one-stop shopping to stock up on your fresh local produce, for a quick snack, to gather ingredients for a picnic lunch or a gourmet pasta dinner – even to shop for a fantastic foodie gift basket. It’s right off of Highway 1 at Nashua Road; you can drive easily, or take the Monterey Bay Coastal trail from Lover’s Point for a half-day activity.
Artichoke lovers’ delight
We generally make the beautiful drive around the bay every couple of weeks for bags of fresh artichokes. I especially like when baby artichokes are available; I use them in this tomato artichoke soup recipe. Any size is good, though. If you aren’t certain how to cook them, this post on Simply Recipes does a good job of covering the basics, or just ask the staff at Pezzini’s!
Pezzini’s makes and sells all sorts of products for the artichoke lover, like the artichoke parmesan pasta sauce, which we found is excellent on pizzas, Elki’s artichoke bruschetta spread, frozen deep fried artichoke hearts to pull out for a quick appetizer, and Arcangeli’s artichoke garlic herb bread.
I’ve come a long way since the first time I ever had an artichoke. That was back in the Midwest in the days when artichokes were relatively uncommon there. I was working at an Italian restaurant that served an artichoke stuffed full of with seasoned bread crumbs and parmesan cheese, served with melted garlic butter in which to dip the leaves. I almost always had to explain how to eat them, and more often than not, customers sent the heart back to be “prepared.” We would scoop out the choke and the heart to a fresh plate, slice in quarters, and carry it out to the table. Had I known that one day I’d be living in an artichoke lover’s paradise, I’d have moved here sooner!.
Don’t forget to grab a snack
I’ve stopped at The Choke Coach with out-of-town visitors for years, usually on the way to or from the Aquarium, to treat them to a basket of fried artichoke hearts. They are perfectly seasoned, fried to golden brown crunchiness, and sprinkled with parmesan cheese.
They do a good burger as well. One day the dog and I were driving home after a Monterey Airport drop-off on an uncharacteristically hot morning. I was hungry and thirsty and Pup was squirming. We pulled off at Pezzini’s and ordered a cold drink and a burger from The Choke Coach. Pup and I sat at a picnic table cooling off under the shade of an awning and shared a freshly grilled burger. I like to say we watched the world go by, except there’s not much happening from the patio of the Choke Coach except to watch the plants grow across the road. It was heaven.
I’m getting hungry – best to stop here and get ready for a Pezzini’s run!
Like this post? Subscribe for monthly updates from The Monterey Bay Blog