NUTS AND RAISINS RECIPES

Steps:

• 1. Gennaro makes a mean stuffed porchetta. It looks and tastes beautiful, but don’t be intimidated because it’s really not hard to do at all. Get your butcher to butterfly the meat for you then make this beautiful stuffing and roll it up inside the meat before you roast it. You’ll want to have a piece of string about an arm’s length handy to tie your meat up once you’ve rolled it.
  2. Preheat your oven to full whack. Lay the boned shoulder of pork on a board, skin-side down, and season well with a few really good sprinkles of salt and pepper. Massage this seasoning all over the meat.
  3. Put a large pan on a medium heat and fry your diced onion in a lug of olive oil for about 10 minutes and when it’s softened but not coloured, turn the heat down to low and add the chopped chicken livers and pork mince. Use a wooden spoon to break the mince up a bit and mix everything together. Add the pine nuts, raisins, chopped sage and parsley, then season with a good sprinkle of salt and pepper. Pour in a splash of red or mulled wine, give everything a good stir then take your pan off the heat. You don’t want to cook the meat now, you just want to get a good mix of flavours going so you have a delicious stuffing.
  4. Put the stuffing in a bowl and put it to one side to cool down. Once your stuffing has completely cooled, spoon all of it down the middle of the opened shoulder. Roll the meat up quite tightly then tie it up as tightly as you can with 4 or 5 pieces of string. Drizzle all over with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and rub the seasoning all over the skin to help it turn into delicious crackling. Lay your carrots across the middle of the roasting tray and put the meat on top. Pour your glass of red or mulled wine and a glass of water in the bottom of the tray then put your meat in the oven. Turn the heat down immediately to 180°C/350°F/gas 4 for about 3 ½ to 4 hours until lovely and golden. Once it’s out of the oven carefully remove the skin and put it to one side. Slice the pork then serve it with some tasty bits of broken up crackling, lovely potatoes and a few greens or a nice salad. Absolutely gorgeous.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Combine nuts and seeds in a medium-sized bowl. Add the maple syrup and spices and salt and toss to combine. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray, then transfer coated nuts to baking sheet and spread evenly in 1 layer. Bake 15 to 20 minutes, stirring once, until nuts are fragrant and lightly toasted.