A Stew-pendous Supper!

Spezzatino di Maiale e Verdure Miste

Pork & Vegetable Stew

Please don't ask me what my favorite A-ha song is this evening- because you already know what the answer is going to be... "Summer Moved On" of course. Sigh. Pretty sad- but this evening was cold, dark and rainy... People- it is still too early for this! We hardly even had a Summer here in Germany!

On the other hand, the weather also provided the perfect excuse to make this yummy, high-speed but delicious stew for supper! So as a little taste of things to come in the next few months, here is a light but satisfying and filling bowl of comfort food to make everything feel alright! And to warm those little cockles of your hearts!

Obviously, what you are about to read is how I went about preparing one hearty portion, but it will be very easy to simply multipls the ingredients by the number of people you are cooking for!

I started off by chopping a carrot, a stick of celery and a quarter or a regular sized onion and briefly sautéeing them in a little olive oil with some crushed garlic and a little tomato paste. As soon as the onion became translucent, I added a handful of pearl barley, stirred it in well and then added enough boiling water to cover everything. I reduced the heat to a low simmer, added a bay leaf, some salt and pepper and let it boil gently for 5 minutes.

During the next 5 minutes, I fried the pork in a little olive oil with another quarter of a finely chopped onion and a little garlic at a high heat, stirring occasionally, but letting the pork and onion brown nicely. In the meantime, I finely chopped a handful of parsley and trimmed and chopped a handful of string beans.

After 5 minutes of the vegetables simmering and the meat frying, I added the meat and onions to the vegetables, along with all of the juices and the yummy onion. I added the beans and the chopped parsley, turned the heat back up until it was boiling gently again and let it simmer for another 10 minutes, adding more hot water if necessary. There should be no need for other flavorings or seasoning with the celery, carrot, parsley and onion in there.

Whilst the stew simmered, I cut some cocktail tomatoes in 3's and added these for the final 5-6 minutes, so that they remained intact, but so that they had time to add their flavor to the broth and to make it light and delicious. I served it up with a sprinkle of ground chili, a light drizzle of olive oil and a sprig of parsley to garnish- and there you have it! A simple stew, full of flavor yet healthy and light, to ease us gently into the cooler months ahead with a smile on out faces :-) Hope you all enjoy it!