Put your hand up if you think “time” should be treated as an ingredient. For this recipe, time (patience) is important for this dish to be a success.
I love pork belly and Italians do a great job of it in a Porchetta (pronounced “porketta”). Basically it’s a rolled and pork belly, tied up and slow roasted. Time is needed to render the fat in the skin and in the meat and the dealbreaker? Crispy skin.
Crackling (crispy skin) is achieved through high heat. One can do this at the beginning of the cooking process or the end. Either approach works. So, this dish requires two-stage cooking – high heat and moderately low heat. Both important but not hard to achieve.
Wouldn’t this be a fantastic Sunday roast centerpiece?
Porchetta
(serves 8-10)
6lb. pork belly, skin on
approx. 2-3 lbs of pork loin
8 cloves of garlic, minced
1 cup finely chopped parsley
zest of 2 lemons
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh rosemary
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh thyme leaves
2 Tbsp. ground fennel
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
3-4 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. ground pepper
+ extra sea salt for skin
- Place meat side of the belly facing up on your work surface. Score the meat in a criss-cross fashion.
- Into a medium bowl, add garlic, parsley, lemon zest, rosemary, thyme, ground fennel and mix well. Smear the mustard all over the meat side. Season with salt and pepper then spread the herb/spice/garlic mixture all over.
- Place the pork tender along the length of the pork belly (you may need to line up one and half tenderloins, trim to length of belly).
- Roll the belly up around the loin. Using butcher’s twine, tie up your pork belly. Pat-dry the skin with paper towel.
- Season the skin well with salt, place on a wire roasting rack and place a roasting pan underneath.
- Two ways to cook your pork belly: pre-heat oven to 500F and roast for about 30 minutes or until skin becomes crisp. Lower heat to 300 and roast for 3 hours or until internal temp is 165F. Or Place in a pre-heated 300F oven for 3 hours or until internal temp. reaches 165F. Take pork belly out the oven, raise the oven temp to 500 and roast until skin blisters and becomes crisp.
- Allow pork to rest uncovered for 1 hour before slicing. If you see salt on the the skin, take a pastry brush and brush away. Cut and remove butcher twine.
*Serve Porchetta with Roasted Greek Lemon Potatoes
Pro Tip: To help you achieve crispy skin, poke small holes all over the skin (do not pierce meat) and place uncovered in the fridge for 2 days.
