Stews cheer any rainy day

Stews are the kind of food I grew up with and a simple beef stew with spaghetti was always there throughout my childhood and teenage years. There´s nothing elegant, complicated or much to be said about this dish - it´s just simple comfort food, so easy to cook and easy to like!

See?

My son also loves this stew, it´s one of his favorite dishes. I can swear he doesn´t take the eyes of prize until he´s finished... which takes about 5 minutes! This is how fast he can eat...

And aren´t stews  just the perfect food for a rainy day? This last weekend was so depressing, it rained almost non-stop from Friday to Sunday and I felt like preparing something more homy but easy to warm up the spirit - rainy days give me very uncomfortable headaches!

Like I said, there isn´t much to be said about this stew. To prepare it, you just need to brown 1 onion in olive oil, add tomato paste (approx. 2 table spoons), cubes of beef, salt, pepper and coriander or parsley, whatever you prefer - I always prefer coriander over parsley. You also need to add water, just enough to cover the meat, not drown it , otherwise it´s harder to get the tick and flavorful sauce in the end.

However, you have to make sure that the water doesn´t boil away, since the meat needs at least about 1 hour to cook. You might need to keep adding a little bit of water every 15 minutes or so and once the meat is tender it´s time to add around 2 cups of water again, followed by the spaghetti. Ten more minutes and it´s ready to eat!