Yes, that’s right – a long overdue recipe post! Try to contain your shock and glee. 🙂 The boy and I are back on the cooking-new-things bandwagon. This is based on a recipe we found in a Better Homes & Garden slow cooker book. It originally called for a different mix of spices that was strong on the fennel seeds. Fennel seeds, however, make things taste like black licorice, which is gross. So we substituted Herbs de Provence (which still has a tiny bit of fennel in the mix) and changed up the proportions of the other spices to suit our tastes. Below is what we ended up with, and it was delicious. And probably more French than Italian thanks to spice changes, but whatever. For reference, I have a 2-quart slow cooker, so adjust as needed for however big yours is/however many people you need to feed.
Italian Pork with Mashed Sweet Potatoes
Ingredients
- 1.5 lb. boneless pork shoulder or butt roast
- 1 lb. sweet potatoes (about 2 large potatoes), peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
- 1 c. chicken broth
- 1 tsp. dried oregano
- 1 tsp. garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp. Herbs de Provence
- 1/4 tsp. paprika
- Salt & ground black pepper to taste
Directions
- Combine spices in a small bowl. Trim fat from meat. Sprinkle the spice mixture evenly over the meat, rubbing in with your fingers. If necessary, cut meat to fit into your slow cooker.
- Place cubed sweet potatoes in slow cooker. Add meat on top. Pour broth over both.
- Cover and cook on low heat for 8-10 hours, or high heat for 4-5 hours (we did high heat for 5).
- Remove meat from the cooker and use forks to pull apart. Transfer sweet potatoes to a medium bowl using a slotted spoon. Mash the sweet potatoes with a potato masher, adding more of the cooking juices if necessary to moisten.
- Serve and enjoy.
How about you? Cooked anything interesting lately? Have any good slow cooker recipes to share?
