
Meatballs are one comfort food trend among many, all of which seem to have been with us since the nineties for no obvious reason. Maybe we've all gotten so very tired of politics and obstructionists and pundits and sign-wavers and bad times and bank bailouts and... OK, comfort foods aren't going away any time soon. So try this Greek-inspired dish, the flavors based on those from the eastern part of the Mediterranean.
If you've never worked with fresh baby artichokes, take this warning to heart: You may need to lose a little more than half of each before they're ready to go in the stew. Cut the top third off the artichoke, getting rid of any spiky points, even inside. Then pull off the outer leaves until you get down to a small pale green, sometimes yellowish, teardrop-shaped vegetable. The choke inside (the hairy bits in a bigger artichoke) is still edible in these small ones, so there's no need to remove it. Or buy frozen baby artichokes and be done with it.

