I went shopping early this morning, and was surprised to see cardoons in the
produce case. I bought the best-looking bunch of it, and now I'm ruminating
on ways to use it. They're similar in flavor to artichokes (no surprise
there; they're the same species).

My "candidate" uses are

1. Blanched and served with bagna cauda
2. Fried, then covered with tomato sauce and cheese and baked
3. Made into soup with lamb, pancetta, and onions
4. Made into a savory custard with béchamel, onions, ricotta, parmesan, and
eggs

....or maybe I'll just wing it and do something completely different!

Cardoons strings are much tougher than celery strings, so the strings have
to be removed. When I've prepared cardoons in the past, I just threw the
strings away, but I just learned that cardoons are used to coagulate milk
into cheese in Portugal, having a natural enzyme which works like rennet. I
might see if the leftover strings have enough of that enzyme to coagulate
milk.

Bob