Braised Pork for when you miss Italy

We used to go to Italy every year, and there were a million reasons that it was so good, but obviously the main one was the food.
But now, stuck back in rainy dark England, I crave the warmest, tastiest cuisine and it is this greed that has led to me to capture the delicious deep resonance of a hearty tomato-based casserole from my Uncle's kitchen in Gualdo, right here at home.
1)As always, start with onions. Chop up three roughly, you don't want them very fine and mince about 8 garlic cloves, don't do any less! The easiest way to do this is to press the clove with the side of a knife and peel off the skin when it breaks. Sweat them for about 10 minutes until the onions go soft and translucent.
2)Dice up some carrots and add them to the pan until they soften.
3)Push them to one side of the pan and use the other side to brown 4 pork chops. This cut isn't traditional for braising, better ones would be the uglier varieties like shoulder, knuckle or belly, but as the chops are getting cheaper and grislier, braising them to make the meat tender and tasty seems appropriate.
4)Remove the chops and and this is the part where I get embarrassingly excited because this is where it starts to become a casserole instead of some cooked veg. Add a rich beef stock pot, a splash of balsamic vinegar, some dried or fresh oregano and some brown sugar. Using vinegar and sugar is very traditional in Italian tomato sauce, because it strikes a balance between the tart tomatoes and sweet onions.
5)Pour in 3 cans of chopped tomatoes and another Italian tip is to swill half a can of water between the cans to clean them and use all the tomatoes.
6)Finish it off with a few bay leaves, a drained can of artichoke hearts and your meat, and then put it in a warm pre-heated oven quite low at 150 degrees for a good few hours by which time the chops will be tender and pull away from the grisly rind much easier than if you grilled them. Serve with buttery mashed potato or on its own!