A Casserole of Artichokes and Pork for Deepest Winter

Name: A Casserole of Artichokes and Pork for Deepest Winter
Yield: enough for 4
Ingredients: pork sausages – 8 really good ones; olive oil; onions – 4 medium; garlic – 2 cloves; small mushrooms – 9 ounces (250g); Jerusalem artichokes – 1 pound (500g); a large lemon; fennel seeds – a teaspoon; light stock or water to cover – about 2 cups (500ml); flat-leaf parsley – a small bunch, coarsely chopped; steamed cavolo nero, spring cabbage, or purple sprouting, to serve

December 14, 2011

A damp January morning (2006) and a walk round the vegetable patch reveals only two herbs in reasonable condition: rosemary, which loses some of its potency in winter, and parsley, most of which has collapsed in a dead faint to the ground. I value both enormously, feeling even now that they have an edge on the imported basil and spindly thyme in the markets. Both respond well to earthy winter cooking. Chilled to the bone (I find it’s the damp that gets to me more than the temperature), I come in and use the parsley where it really matters: in a pan of braised artichokes and pork sausage, whose brown depths I freshen up with Italian lemons and, at its side, some crisp and chewy greens.

Recipe notes

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