An Italian-inspired dinner. Start by soaking a few dried porcini mushrooms, broken into small pieces, in hot water, then make
a soffritto – a mixture of carrots, celery and onion, chopped into small pieces – which is fried gently in olive oil until it starts
to brown, adding crushed garlic for the last few minutes. Remove to a casserole, then brown some stewing pork, cut into large chunks,
which have been lightly dusted in seasoned flour. (I used pork cheeks for this, which are inexpensive and very tasty.) Add tomatoes, which have
been skinned, deseeded and chopped, together with the soaked mushrooms, their liquid and a glass of red wine. Season with salt and pepper,
bring to a simmer, then pour everything into the casserole with the soffritto, adding sprigs of fresh oregano and chicken stock to cover the meat.
Put a lid on the dish and cook in a slow oven, 140°C, for about 2½ hours. Take out of the oven and let cool a little, remove the pork,
discard the oregano stalks, and boil down the sauce until thick. Shred the pork, which should fall to pieces, return to the sauce and reheat,
before serving with soft polenta.
For the polenta, use the quick-cook variety, following the instructions on the package, making it with chicken stock, adding a good amount
of grated parmesan and a large knob of butter towards the end of the cooking and stirring, until nice and creamy. Green beans, simmered
for 5 minutes, drained and reheated with butter and crushed garlic, also go well with this.