© David Loftus

slow-roasted spiced pork loin with black-eyed beans and tomatoes

method

This dish works as described here, but you can also stuff it into hot flour tortillas or pita breads to be eaten like a kind of fajita or burrito – superb. Spanish smoked paprika is now widely available, and your butcher can do the trimming and scoring of the pork loin for you to save you some time.

Preheat your oven to 475°F. First, score the skin of the pork in a criss-cross pattern every ¹⁄₂ inch with a sharp knife, trying not to cut into the meat itself. Mix a little salt with a teaspoon of paprika, the lemon juice and a little olive oil, then rub this over the meat and into the score lines. Put the meat in a high-sided roasting pan and cook in the preheated oven for 30 minutes to start the skin crisping up.

Remove the meat from the oven, turning the heat down to 350°F. Take the pork out of the pan and put it to one side, then spoon out half the fat and discard it. Place the pan on the stovetop, add the onions, whole chillies, chorizo, bay leaves and rosemary with the remaining paprika, and fry gently until the onions are soft. Add all the tomatoes, the beans, garlic, parsley and a wine glass of water to the pan, stirring and scraping up all the lovely sticky bits from the bottom. Place the pork on top, return to the oven and cook for another hour or so or until the skin is crispy and the meat is meltingly tender.

When cooked, remove the pork from the pan and allow to rest. Taste the sauce and season with salt, pepper and a few swigs of red wine vinegar to give it a twang. Then remove the chillies and control the heat by chopping up as much chilli as you like and stirring it back into the sauce. Lovely served with sour cream.

serves: 8

ingredients

• 7lb rib-end loin of pork with skinon, French-trimmed
• sea salt and freshly groundblack pepper
• 5 teaspoons smoked paprika
• juice of 1 lemon
• olive oil
• 3 red onions, finely sliced
• 6–8 fresh red, yellow and greenchillies
• 7oz small whole chorizo sausages, thickly sliced
• 6 bay leaves
• 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary,finely chopped
• 3 14oz cans of good-quality plum tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 2 handfuls of fresh ripe tomatoes, halved
• 4 14oz cans of black-eyedbeans, drained
• 5 cloves of garlic, peeled andfinely chopped
• a handful of fresh flat-leafparsley, chopped
• red wine vinegar
• sour cream, to serve