This recipe is a great variation on conventional applesauce. It only takes about 20 minutes start to finish and will pair beautifully with pork, especially roast pork

The chile and lemon add a tart piquancy that works well to cut the richness of pork.

Fresh Chile Apple Sauce Recipe

1lb apples you don't need to worry about getting cooking apples for this recipe, just use whatever apples look good, and preferably smell appley

2 Tbls butter

Juice from 1/2-1 lemon

1 tsp red chile flakes

Salt and sugar to taste

Peel the apples and chop the flesh. You want to chop it fairly finely, and the time spent chopping it small will result in quicker cooking

Heat your butter in a heavy fry pan over medium heat, when hot, add all the chopped apples. Saute for a couple of minutes until slightly softened and then add about a cup of water to the pan.

Turn the heat up high and boil until all the liquid has evaporated.

By this point the apples should be quite soft, if you want them falling-apart soft, you can add a bit more water and keep cooking, but I think that this is best when the apples still have a bit of texture to them.

Squeeze the lemon into the apples and add a pinch of salt and your dried chile. Stir it all up and taste. You're not looking for this to be too spicy, as you want to be able to taste the apples, and you also want there to be a good balance between sweet and sour. You can add more lemon juice if it's not sour enough, and although most apples should provide enough natural sugar, you can add some additional sugar if it's too tart.

It should be savory without being noticeably salty. If it tastes too bland, add another pinch of salt.

That's all there is to it, serve hot or at room temperature.

This really pairs well with roasted pork, but could also go well with any style of pork chops.

Any extras will keep for several days in the fridge; try adding this to a roasted pork sandwich...porkolicious!