Serves 6
Ingredients:-
- 1 ham hock
- 3 celery sticks, snapped in half
- 3 carrots, trimmed, peeled and cut in half
- 2 onions, halved
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 sprigs of thyme
- 1 whole head of garlic, with the cloves peeled
- 30g sage, roughly chopped
- 100g pearl barley
- 250g cavolo nero or savoy cabbage, trimmed and sliced
Method:-
- A drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
- Put the ham hock and 4-5 litres of water into a pot with all the veg, herbs and garlic.
- Bring to the boil, skim, then turn down the heat and leave to simmer for 4 hours, skimming occasionally until the meat is falling off the bone.
- Lift the ham out and leave it to cool.
- Take out the veg and put to one side.
- Throw away the thyme and bay leaves.
- Chop the veg into nice small chunks.
- Put the ham stock back on the stove and bring to a simmer.
- Give it a final skim then add the sage and pearl barley, cooking the barley according to the time on the packet. Note the time required to cook the barley.
- Pick and chuck the bigger bits of fat off the ham hock, then shred the meat into soup-size chunks.
- Add the meat to the veg.
- About 25 minutes before the barley is cooked, stir in the cavolo nero.
- Cover the broth with a lid and simmer until the barley and cavolo are cooked.
- Add back the cooked veg and meat and season well.
- Serve in big bowls with a drizzle of olive oil and some crusty bread.
