Jono & Jules do food & wine

Roasted green peppers stuffed with a delicious slow-cooked ragu with pork and chorizo. If you cook the ragu in advance this is a quick and simple dinner and it tastes absolutely delicious. Something good to have in the freezer for a rainy day. Serve with a salad on the side.

Wine Suggestion: José Pizarro recommends serving with a rich Bobal from Vanencia or Utiel-Requena which sounds pretty good to us.

Spanish Stuffed Peppers – serves 8

• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 2 celery stalks, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 200g cooking chorizo, skin removed and finely chopped
• 500g pork mince
• 1 star anise
• finely grated zest of 1 lemon
• 200ml white wine
• 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
• 2 tbsp tomato purée
• 350ml chicken stock
• 8 large green peppers

Heat the oil in a large, deep frying pan and gently fry the onion and celery for 10 minutes or until very soft. Add the garlic and chorizo and cook for 5 minutes or until the chorizo has released its oil.

Turn up the heat and add the pork mince. Stir and break it up with a wooden spoon until browned all over.

Add the star anise, lemon zest, and white wine and allow to bubble for a few minutes.

Add the tomatoes, tomato purée and chicken stock. Season well with salt and pepper and bring to the boil, then reduce and simmer for 2-3 hours. Give it a stir now and then and add a little stock or water if it reduces too much.

At this point you can either proceed with the recipe or cool the ragu and store in the fridge or freezer for later.

Heat the oven to 180C fan.

Cut the tops off the peppers and deseed them. Put the peppers upright in a roasting tin so they fit snugly and won’t fall over. Drizzle with olive oil and season well with salt and pepper. Roast for 20 minutes or until softened but still holding their shape (we had large peppers so we cooked them for a bit longer than this).

Fill the peppers with the ragu and roast for another 15 minutes or until bubbling.

(Original recipe from The Spanish Pantry by José Pizarro, Quadrille, 2025.)