Swiss Barley Soup (Gerstensuppe)

It’s a sustaining dish full of vegetables and cured meat, that’s more a meal than a soup, and perfect for this time of year. This version, called Bündner Gerstensuppe, is from the canton of Grisons (also called Graubünden) in Switzerland’s far east, a remote mountainous area bordering Italy and Austria. Raw speck (cured pork belly), schweinenacken (smoked pork, similar to German kassler) and smoked beef are available from specialist European butchers. As it’s almost impossible to get Swiss wine in Australia, with this soup I enjoy the deliciously elegant Patrizi Nebbiolo d’Alba from Piedmont, just across the Swiss-Italian border.