Sophie Hansen’s easy tomato and chorizo stew

EASY TOMATO & CHORIZO STEW   

Serves: 6
Prep time: 15 mins
Cook time: 50 mins

This warming, flavour punch of a tomato stew is a pretty wonderful thing to pour into a big mug and wrap your fingers around on a windswept headland on a cool spring evening. Not all of us have our own headland for such occasions, but you probably have a garden, nature strip, nearby park or beach. Pack this stew in a thermos for your dinner picnic and serve it with some warm sourdough.

We crumbled a little of Fiona and Adam’s fresh goat’s cheese over the stew and it added such a lovely note of creamy, tangy goodness — highly recommended!

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
2 chorizo sausages, diced
3 garlic cloves, sliced
2 brown onions, diced
1 carrot, finely diced
1 celery stalk, finely diced
1 cup (250ml) white wine
800g tin whole peeled tomatoes
250g soft goat’s cheese, to serve
Sourdough bread slices, to serve

1. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium–high heat. Add the fennel seeds and cook for 1 minute or until aromatic. Add the chorizo and cook for a few more minutes, then add the garlic, onion, carrot and celery. Cook, stirring often, for 10 minutes.

2. Pour in the wine and cook for 1 minute or until the liquid bubbles and reduces a little.

3. Add the tomatoes and cook, breaking everything up with a spoon. Reduce the heat, season with salt and freshly ground black pepper and gently simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring every now and then so the stew doesn’t catch and burn on the base of the pan.

4. Either serve the stew straight away, or transfer it to a thermos to keep hot and head off to your picnic. Crumble the goat’s cheese over the stew and serve it with some lovely warm sourdough or garlic bread.

Variation: You could use this stew as a base for a quick and easy seafood stew. Bring the stew to the boil, then reduce the heat to low and add 800g mixed seafood (e.g. mussels, firm white fish, calamari). Cook for about 5 minutes or until the fish is cooked through and the mussel shells have opened.

This is an extract from Sophie Hansen’s book In Good Company.

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