Picadillo is a flavorful, traditional dish served in Latin America. Its ingredients vary a bit from country to country, but most versions typically feature ground meat, chopped green bell peppers and onions. Mine is more of a Cuban variety, with ground beef, ground pork, peppers, onions, garlic, raisins, olives, capers and other ingredients, which provide for delicious sweet and sour flavors (“picadillo,” by the way, is derived from the Spanish picar, which means “to chop”). I hope you’ll give it a try!

1 Tbsp olive oil
2 medium onions, diced
3 cloves garlic, peeled and very finely grated or minced
1 large green bell pepper, diced
1 14.5-oz can diced tomatoes
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 lb very lean, ground beef
1 lb very lean, ground pork
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup pimento-stuffed green olives, sliced
1/2 cup golden raisins
1 Tbsp drained capers
1/4 cup red wine

Heat olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the onions, garlic and green bell peppers, and saute for 4 minutes.

Add the tomatoes, salt, black pepper, beef and pork. Cook the mixture for 5 minutes (or until meat is no longer pink), stirring constantly to break meat up.

Add the rest of the ingredients (through red wine). Turn heat to high, stir and bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to low, and simmer, uncovered, for 1 hour (stirring occasionally). Season to taste with salt and pepper (I added an additional 4 tsp salt, which seemed about right).

Meanwhile, prepare the rice. For the herbed-rice, follow my recipe for steamed jasmine rice, but add 1 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley at the beginning.

Serve warm picadillo with the rice.

Serves 8.