ARTICHOKES WITH HAM

Artichokes are a great vegetable and are delicious with ham.

You need:
- 2 kg of artichokes (it seems a lot but for this recipe you need to get rid of all the leaves, which you can used for a soup)
- 200 gr serrano/iberico ham (diced) - you can also try with parma ham.
- olive oil (4 tablespoons)
- salt

Clean the artichokes: get rid of all the leaves, cut the tails and chop the artichokes in fourths. You can rub them with lemon if you do not want them to get dark - personally, I find that rubbing them with lemon alters their flavour and do not mind if they get a bit dark.

Heat the oil in a big pan. Turn up the heat to its maximum setting. Add the artichokes, and wait for 5 minutes (stirring from time to time). Then add the ham, lover the heat and wait for another 5-7 minutes until the artichokes get tender (the exact timing depends on the quality of the artichokes: as a general rule, more if the artichokes are round and less if their are pointy) Serve immediately.