Although my Sunday dinners usually include meat, it isn’t always the star of the dish. Last night’s pork chops were overshadowed by the vegetable side dish, a wonderful medley of vegetables, rather ratatouille-like, cooked in the same skillet as the chops.

I love the combination of pork and fennel, and its fragrance and anise flavour really enhanced the meal. I only have a few pans in the new kitchen, so I added thinly sliced potatoes to make this a one-pot meal.

I wasn’t planning to blog about this, but Brent just reheated some of the leftovers for an evening snack, and it smells so good! I just may have some myself when I finish writing this (now short) post.

This is another one of my throw-it-all-in-the-oven-and-enjoy-yourself-while-it’s-cooking dishes. Once all the chopping and sautéing is done, it’s nice to have a break and rest up for the serious business of eating this tasty dish! (Actually, this recipe would be great with a pork roast too, with the added advantage of a longer resting period for the cook.)

My good dishes are at the new house, but almost no furniture. We set our plates on a couple of stools and sat on the two kitchen chairs that we’ve taken over there. It was like having a picnic in the kitchen!

Fennel and Tomato Medley

Designed to complement pork chops

• 2 medium onions, halved lengthwise and sliced thinly
• 1 bulb fennel, quartered lengthwise, cored and sliced about 1/4″ thick
• several cloves garlic, sliced thinly
• 1 baking potato, cut in half lengthwise, then sliced thinly
• 4 sun dried tomatoes, cut into small pieces
• a good splash of red wine
• 1 28 oz (796 ml) can diced tomatoes and their juice
• about 1 tbsp dried chopped sage
• about 1 tbsp dried oregano
• freshly ground pepper