What to do with leftover roast pork

Pork and bean stew

I’m always at a bit of a loss when it comes to left over roast meat. You can eat it cold, in sandwiches, in salads etc but its winter in Sydney so none of these options are very appealing. A few Sundays ago, we cooked a massive roast pork for the two of us which forced me to be a little more inventive with the remains. Pork is not something we cook very often here because it’s less abundant and more expensive in Australia in comparison to the mother country. So I felt that the leftovers deserved some love and came up with this Spanish style stew.

If you have enough left over pork for two then use this recipe, if there is enough for four then double the recipe and so on.

• 1 tbsp EVOO
• 100 g pancetta chopped finely chopped
• 1 red onion finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves finely chopped
• Left over roast pork cut into 1 inch cubes
• 1 red capsicum, chopped into 1 cm strips
• 250 ml white wine
• 400 g canned tomatoes
• 400 g cannellini beans
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• ½ tsp dried thyme
• Pinch of saffron soaked in hot water
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• ½ bunch parsley roughly chopped
• Salt and freshly ground pepper

In a large saucepan, fry the chopped pancetta and onion in olive oil for 5-10 minutes until golden, then add the garlic, pork and capsicum and stir. Pour in the white wine and reduce to 50%, then add the tomatoes, herbs, saffron and paprika. Bring to the boil and break up the tomatoes and then simmer for an hour to reduce. Add water or chicken stock if it gets too dry or you want it more liquidy. Finally add the cannellini beans and cook for a further 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and serve with chopped parsley. I accompanied the stew with red, white and black quinoa and amaranth, but you could use millet or brown rice instead.