To prepare the artichokes: cut the lemons in half, squeeze the juice into a bowl half full of water, and then add the lemons as well. Use a sharp knife to shorten the stalk of the first artichoke, leaving a piece roughly 2 cm long. Pull off the outer, tougher petals, cut the top off, trim the tips of the outer layers, starting from the top and going round until you reach the bottom, then peel the stalk. After it’s cleaned – you’ve reached the “heart” – the artichoke will be much smaller. Rub the “head” with one of the squeezed lemon halves, then cut the artichoke in half… if you find any hairy choke, remove that as well using the tip of a knife. As you prepare the artichokes put them into the bowl of water and lemon juice you prepared previously. Then strain them, pat them dry with kitchen paper and slice them thinly. In a heavy-bottomed frying pan, lightly sauté the cloves of garlic in the olive oil. When they’re a nice golden brown – not burnt! – remove them from the pan. Tip the sliced artichokes in, season with salt and pepper and stir well with a wooden spoon. Add the parsley (the leaves – washed, dried and finely chopped), stir and leave to cook for about 10 minutes (if you see that they are drying out too much, add a little warm water). Season with the Balsamico Bianco and set aside.

For the pici: heap the flour up on your work surface and create a “well”; put a tablespoon of olive oil and a pinch of salt in the centre, and gradually add the warm water (the quantity may vary according to the type of flour used) mixing and then kneading for 10 minutes, until you have a smooth, elastic ball of dough that isn’t sticky. Leave it to rest for half an hour wrapped in cling film. When the time is up, use a rolling pin to roll out the dough (using a little flour so it doesn’t stick) into a sheet about 1 cm thick. Cut it into strips roughly 1 cm wide and, once again with the help of a little flour, roll them with the palms of your hands to form the pici (this procedure is known as “appiciare”, hence the name pici). As you make them, lay them out one by one on a tablecloth sprinkled with semolina, making sure they aren’t touching.

Lastly, the red pesto: blend the sun-dried tomatoes, pine nuts, pecorino cheese, garlic and basil until you obtain the desired consistency. Then put the mixture in a bowl, add the olive oil and chilli pepper and stir thoroughly. Alternatively, you can use the traditional method by crushing the sun-dried tomatoes, garlic and pine nuts in a mortar. When you have reduced them to a paste, add the basil, pecorino and chilli pepper and continue working with the pestle in the mortar. Finally drizzle in the oil and stir to amalgamate everything well.

Cook the pici in a saucepan with plenty of boiling, salted water for roughly 6-8 minutes (always taste to make sure); strain them when “al dente” (setting aside the cooking water) and, in a large bowl, mix them with the artichokes, the red pesto and 4 or 5 spoonfuls of the pasta cooking water. Serve straight away – nice and hot – and “buon appetito”!