Day 169: bitter comfort

Since starting this cookalong, I’ve discovered that I do in fact have a lot of room in my life for bitterness. Not bitter attitudes: bitter foods. I used to think something was up with the receptors in my gustatory cells when I tasted something bitter and would moan about it for the duration of my meal; being suspectable to sinus infections, and getting a lot of them, means the bitter taste wasn't always associated with good food! Over the past year, however, I seem to have retrained a neural pathway and now get glorious pleasure from eating and chewing on bitter foods. This is probably evident with the recent haul of radicchio that I brought back home with me from London. Most people buy magnets - I buy a bag of gorgeously reddy-purple, cabbage-lettuce-looking things.

This brings us on to today’s pick: Nigella’s Venetian Stew; a splendidly pink-hued stew of beans and pancetta and radicchio.

Nigella’s Venetian Stew

I was seriously off-form in the kitchen this night. I was about ready to serve up until realised I’d forgot the cumin and the raisins! Such is the way when you’re not being mindful of the task at hand! I added both of these in - noting: I didn’t have raisins so I used golden sultanas - and returned to a vigorous simmer for a brief minute; enough to warm through the sultanas but not massacre the crunch of the radicchio.

Some foods just make your shoulders sink, your face smile, your belly happy and your mood lift. This is a glorious bowlful of that very kind of food. Bitter, sweet, salty and just lovely. (And yes, that is a lake of melting butter in the polenta in the background.)