Artichoke Preserves

The other day my friend David, former owner of La Magrana restaurant in the town of Fonteta in the beautiful Empordà region, made these for us. He placed a few of them in a creamy pumpkin soup, and the extra ones in a small bowl on the side. We couldn't stop until the last drop of oil (and there was plenty, rest assured!) had been sopped up with the also homemade bread. David gave me the recipe and here goes my first try:

At the restaurant they used to serve these babies warm in a green salad. You do use up a lot of oil, and it's important to make sure it's good quality extra virgin olive oil for the results to be high quality as well, but you can use the extra oil (if there is any left over after sopping and sopping with bread) for salads.

Ingredients
4 fresh artichokes
extra virgin olive oil
black pepper
soy sauce
rosemary and thyme

Directions
Discard the tough outer leaves of the artichoke. Slice off cap and discard. Slice what is left of the artichokes very thinly. Place in a pan or casserole. Press with bottom of wooden spoon and cover with good quality extra virgin olive oil. Add black pepper, dash of soy sauce, rosemary and thyme. Place on lowest heat possible, and let cook ever so gently for about an hour. Test with a fork for tenderness. Place in a jar once they've cooled a bit.

There will be a lot of left over oil that you can use for salads.