Cooked one of my all time favourite dishes. My dad would cook this, I think he got the recipe through family friends from Greece.
Fasolakia/Φασολάκια
This dish is dead simple yet rewarding, falling into the "lathera" category of greek cuisine (vegetables + olive oil) and will feed about five. Seriously, this is the ultimate comfort food and you can't mess it up...
- About 1 kg of green beans (doesn't really matter what kind, I use "bush" beans or haricots)
1 kg of pork shoulder, pork chops will do in a pinch
2 400 gram cans of tomato (I use Italian "Mutti" brand, which are great)
2 medium onions (not the ginormous American ones 😉)
5-6 cloves of garlic
About half a cup of fresh rosemary, oregano and thyme
2/3 cup of olive oil (or more...)
3/4 - 1 cup of water
Feta and parsley for topping
Some crusty bread to mop up the sauce
Pat the pork dry and cut into nice, big rustic cubes of about 1 1/2 inches and season with salt and pepper. Pour olive oil (don't be stingy) in your biggest pot and brown the cubes in two batches over high heat. While this is going on, cut (or snap) the beans to your preferred length and chop the onion and herbs and press the garlic. Take the pork out once it is sufficently brown, it doesn't have to be cooked through. Cook the onion for a couple of minutes until tender, add the garlic and cook that for a minute, finally, add the green beans and herbs and stir everything up. Cook them for 6-8 minutes, stirring as needed until they change colour, then add the tomatoes, pork, olive oil and water. Cook for 45 minutes to an hour until the beans are tender but not too soft. Serve with feta and parsley (and a drizzle of extra oil).
If you have a really big dutch oven, this can also be done in the oven but it takes almost twice as long and one should use less water.