I first ate this dish in one of great restaurants of Lazio, Ristorante Mantova nearly thirty years ago. Although I knew the owners well, it took me a lot of wheedling to extract the recipe from them. Unfortunately it does involve a little work, but the effort is well repaid in a sensational subtly-flavoured dish.

The trick in this recipe is to use the boiling water twice, once for cooking the artichokes, and then again for the pasta. This ensures that whatever flavour and colour the artichokes have lost to the boiling water will be imparted to the pasta that you will cook in it.

First boil the salted water. Add to this four large globe artichokes with any dead or discoloured outer leaves removed. Ten minutes will cook them sufficiently. Remove them from the water and leave the water simmering. Now comes the hard work. Remove the leaves one by one from the artichokes and using a grater remove the small bit of soft flesh from the base of each leaf. The amount of flesh will increase gradually as you approach the heart. Grate the heart as well, and when you have finished with all four globes you'll have a small pile of artichoke puree. A word of warning. Irish grown artichokes have a wonderful appearance but I have yet to find one that doesn't have a bunch of fibres instead of a heart - avoid them.

Take a small saucepan and melt 2 ounces of butter in it. Add a quarter pint of cream and let it reduce as described above. At this point you can now let the pasta water boil vigorously and put the penne, or better still rigatoni on to cook.

While the pasta cooks - don't forget to stir it occasionally - add your artichoke puree to the cream and turn the heat down low. Stir it in well and salt to taste. You can let the sauce stand on a very low heat while the pasta finishes cooking.

Finish as usual by draining the pasta, returning it to the pot and pouring in the sauce. Stir it well, then serve. This dish is served without parmesan.