Make It Scotch and food influencer Jess Tedds have created a meaty twist on the trendy pumpkin spice flavour by pairing it with Specially Selected Pork.
Jess – known as Just Jess Food – has crafted a pork dish that makes use of leftover pumpkin by adding spices including ground cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves to give the dish that iconic pumpkin spice flavour.
In a bid to rival the Pumpkin Spice Latte, Jess has paired the root vegetable with Specially Selected Pork as a healthier alternative.
Jess hopes that her Specially Selected Pork meatball and pumpkin spice ricotta risotto inspires others to be creative with seasonal produce and make leftovers go further.
She said: “I wanted to create a dish that is easy to make at home, but also affordable and that can be enjoyed by the whole family.
“Specially Selected Pork is so versatile and the perfect pairing with under-utilised pumpkin which more often than not goes into the waste at this time of year because we don’t really know what to do with the leftovers once carved.”
Lesley Cameron, marketing and communications director at Quality Meat Scotland, said: “In the current climate, it’s understandable that shoppers are looking to cut costs when it comes to their weekly shop. In the last few months, we’ve seen a surge in people switching to pork over chicken and fish.”
Jamie Fleming, communications partner, Zero Waste Scotland, said: “Two thirds of the 1.8 million pumpkins bought by people in Scotland during Halloween end up being chucked away rather than eaten. Just imagine doing the same thing with your Christmas turkey and you can see how frightening this is.”
For more recipe ideas, visit www.makeitscotch.com.
Specially Selected Pork meatball and pumpkin spice ricotta risotto
Serves 4
Ingredients
For the meatballs:
- 250g specially selected pork mince
- 2 tsp apple sauce
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
- ½ white onion
- 1 garlic clove
- Salt and pepper
- Handful crushed panko breadcrumbs
- Butter
- Fresh sage
For the pumpkin puree:
- 700g leftover pumpkin
- Drizzle of oil
- Sprinkle of ground cloves
For the risotto:
- Drizzle of oil
- ½ onion finely chopped
- 1 garlic clove chopped
- 50ml white wine
- 75g risotto rice (per person)
- 2½ ham stock cubes to make 2.5l
- Salt and pepper
- 1 heaped tsp ricotta
- Parmesan
Method
- To make the meatballs, combine all together and roll into ping-pong size meatballs (maybe a little smaller). Then in a pan, add some butter and fresh sage to make sage butter and fry the meatballs gently in this until nice and cooked and leave to one side.
- To make the pumpkin puree, cube 700g of leftover pumpkin, season with salt and pepper and add a drizzle of oil and roast in an oven at 180C/gas 6 for 20-30 mins until fork tender.
- Blitz until the roasted pumpkin creates a puree.
- This should produce the required 425g of pureed pumpkin (any extra can be frozen and reused).
- Add a sprinkle of ground cloves to the puree before adding to the risotto mixture.
- To make the risotto, in the same meatball pan (don’t wash). add a little oil, other half finely chopped onion and chopped garlic clove, fry for couple mins and deglaze the pan with 50ml of white wine and simmer.
- Add 75g pp (I added around 300g) of risotto rice and stir round for 30 seconds.
- Then create your stock with the ham stock cubes. Around 2.5 litres.
- Gradually add one ladle of the stock at a time to the rice and constantly stir until dissolved and so on and so forth until all stock has displaced; this will take in total around 20-25 mins.
- Then nearer to the end of the stock, start to add your pumpkin puree one large spoonful at a time.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste then swirl in a heaped tablespoon of ricotta. Add the meatballs and any more stock if needed so it’s nice and silky. Shave over Parmesan if desired and garnish with a couple of sprigs of fresh sage.
