Chorizo and white bean pepper pot

We are all being urged to help pig farmers by buying only British pork. That said, I do have to plead guilty when it comes to things like salami, Parma ham, pancetta and that other shining star of continental cuisine, chorizo. But as British farming is of such a high standard, it's good to know that part of being European means that now some of these products are being made very successfully here.Our local, award-winning pork farmers, Ian and Sue Whitehead at Lane Farm, Suffolk, now include in their excellent range of sausages something rarely seen outside Spain, in the shape of semi-dried, lightly smoked chorizos, fragrant, spicy and quite sublime. These can be ordered by mail and freeze well if you want to stock up. But failing that, this recipe will work with normal dried chorizo. Either way it makes a good, colourful supper dish.

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Method

Start off by heating the oil in a medium-sized flameproof casserole, then peel and slice the onion roughly and add it to the hot oil. Let it soften and colour at the edges for about 10 minutes, keeping the heat at a minimum.

Meanwhile pour boiling water over the tomatoes and after one minute drain them, slip the skins off and roughly chop the flesh. The pepper needs to be halved, de-seeded and sliced into 2.5cm strips, the garlic peeled and thinly sliced, and the chorizo chopped into 3cm chunks. Now add the pepper and chorizo to the onions and toss them around so that they too colour a little at the edges.

After that add the garlic and tomatoes along with the beans plus their sauce. Next measure the sherry and sherry vinegar and pour into the empty jar to rinse out the rest of the sauce. Give it a good shake with the lid on, and add that to the pan together with some salt. Turn the heat down to a gentle simmer and cook with the lid on for 20 minutes, before removing the lid and letting it cook for a further 20 minutes. Serve with some green, juicy cabbage and, if you’re hungry, a potato or two.

Lane Farm: 01379-384593; lanefarm.co.uk