Currabinny Cooks: This porchetta recipe is the roast with the most
Porchetta: a durable and versatile roast
This week we are deviating a little from our normal one-ingredient-three-ways format to bring you a nice big roast piece of pork along with a delicious side dish and simple but punchy sauce.Â
We rarely make roast dinners as these days we cook just for ourselves and it seems a waste to create so much food.Â
This recipe can feed many, but the beauty of it is that after the initial meal, you will have the most wonderful sandwiches for days and days.Â
This is, of course, true of many roast meats, but they lack the particular duality of porchetta which seems to transform from perfect hot roast meat to thinly-sliced sandwich filler like nothing else.Â
To go with the porchetta I have created a recipe of simple fried apple slices with butter and sage along with a sharp, punchy blackberry sauce.Â
To make the best sandwiches, whip up a little apple sauce and some homemade mayonnaise.Â
Spread mayo in a bap, stuff with thinly-sliced porchetta, a dollop of apple sauce and some leaves.
This porchetta recipe is mostly based on the Bon Appétit Test Kitchen one, which is definitely the best we have tried, especially if you are new to porchetta making. Some recipes require you to make a sort of stuffing, but we find this often doesn’t exactly work with the cooking time required to cook the pork. This version is more of an intense rub, which permeates the meat. The orange slices are important to give some moisture.
- 2.5kg fresh pork belly 1 (trimmed)
- 1.2kg boneless centre cut pork loin
- 3 tablespoons of fennel seeds
- 2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, minced
- 2 tablespoons fresh sage, finely chopped
- 6 fat cloves of garlic, minced
- 5-6 black peppercorns, coarsely crushed
- 1 medium orange, thinly sliced
- Sea salt
First prepare the meat. Place the belly skin side down on a large board. Place the loin in the centre and wrap the belly around the loin so that both ends almost meet. If the loin is too big and the belly falls a good bit short of being able to wrap around it, trim the loin down until it fits.
Set aside for a moment while you prepare the rub.
Toast the fennel seeds on a dry medium-hot pan, tossing the seeds about until fragrant. Crush gently in a pestle and mortar and tip into a bowl along with the crushed peppercorns, minced garlic, rosemary and sage. Cover and leave in the fridge.
Set the belly skin-side-down and score the flesh like a checkerboard and then flip skin-side-up. Using a small sharp knife, stab the skin all over, poking tiny holes in the skin. After this you will subject the belly to even more 'torture' by beating it all over with a meat mallet. This will all help the skin crisp up when roasting.
Turn the belly over again and season generously with salt. Season the loin also and then rub both loin and flesh side of the belly all over with the fennel mixture.
Place the loin back in the middle of the belly and cover with slices of orange. Close the belly over the loin and then truss the whole thing up with kitchen twine. You will need maybe 3 or 4 rows of twine, roughly 1/2 inch apart. You may need a second pair of hands with this. Transfer to a wire rack set on a rimmed baking sheet. Place the whole thing uncovered in the fridge for a full day and night. You might need to pat the loin dry with paper towels every now and again.
Take out of the fridge two hours before you want to put it in the oven. Preheat the oven to 250°C.
Season the porchetta all over with sea salt, rubbing it into the skin. Place in the oven, turning once for 40 minutes and then turn the oven down to 150°C. Roast in the oven, turning the porchetta around every now and then for around 90 - 120 minutes. Use a meat thermometer to tell you when it is cooked through. Rest for 30 minutes before slicing.
...despite their sweetness, makes for a wonderful accompaniment to pork, ham, cold meats, cheese and pickles. I like this on its own as well, on top of a rye cracker or a wholemeal pitta.
- 4 cox apples or similar variety, cored and quartered
- 25g butter a bunch of sage leaves (12-20)Â
- 1 tablespoon of thyme leaves salt and pepper
In a frying pan over a medium heat, melt the butter with a little olive oil. Add the apples, sage and thyme leaves, stirring to coat with the butter. Keep turning in the frying pan until the apples start to caramelise around the edges and the flesh is soft but not falling apart — around 4 minutes.
Leave to cool and place in sterilised jars in a cool place until ready to serve.
Blackberries are delicious with pork and I love the idea of this drizzled over hot porchetta slices and some of that pan-fried apple with sage. I pass the sauce through a sieve to make a nice smooth sauce but I like to add back a few reserved blackberries at the end. The sweet, earthy tartness of blackberries is really unlike anything else. They transport me immediately to some far away memory of foraging hedgerows as a child.
- 120g fresh blackberries
- 1/2 small red chilli, de-seeded and chopped finely
- 1 garlic clove, sliced thinly
- 2 teaspoons of honey
- 1 teaspoon of soy sauce
- 150ml of port
Place a small shallow pan on a medium hight heat. Add the blackberries to the pan along with the chilli and garlic. Sauté for a few minutes, crushing the blackberries with a wooden spoon to release some of their juices so the pan isn’t too dry. Add the honey, teaspoon of soy sauce and the port and turn the heat up slightly. Allow to simmer away for around 10 minutes until the alcohol in the port has evaporated and the sauce reduced a little. I usually like the squash the blackberries a little more at this stage.
When the sauce has reduced and become a little thicker, remove from the heat and let cool slighty before passing through a sieve. I like to add back a couple of reserved blackberries. Pour this over the porchetta. This sauce works wonderfully for any type of pork as well as with duck, pigeon, venison or even on some sautéed greens.
