Beef Barley Soup with Cheesy Garlic Bread

Once, sometimes twice, a week I make a batch of soup. My wife and I takes turns deciding what type I will make and then on my way home from work I’ll stop in at the organic market and pick the ingredients up fresh. This week was L’s choice and reaching back into her comfort food memories she picked Beef Barley soup. I did a quick search and found a great recipe from February 2000 issue of Bon Appétit. I hadn’t fully read the recipe until I got home and found that before the meat gets added the soup has to sit over night. Postponing the soup night seemed a sad thing at first but over the next 24 hours the flavours had married beautifully and made it all worth while. I only bought about one pound of the filet mignon (the recipe calls for 1 1/2 lbs), but when cut into half inch pieces it was more than enough and cooked quite quickly. To accompany the soup I brushed some sourdough bread with garlicky olive oil and mozzarella cheese and grilled it until it was bubbly. We both had seconds.

• BEEF AND BARLEY SOUP - Bon Appétit, February 2000