I think my version of porchetta is legitimately the easiest one out there, because there's pretty much no way to mess it up. By making it like a roast rather than focusing on the cracklin, you end up with a super tender pork roast, speckled with herbs throughout. It's easy, and makes for an impressive holiday dinner.
Prep Time | Cook Time | Serves |
30 minutes | 4 hours | 6 people |
Porchetta
3 lb pork belly - skinless
1/2 lb ground pork
3 cloves garlic
Grated parmesan cheese - to taste
3 sage leaves
Lemon zest from half lemon
Thyme
chili flake
Parsley
Rosemary
1 bulb of fennel - finely diced (reserve fronds)
1 tbsp panko mixed with milk
Salt and pepper
Step 1: Cook Fennel and Make Filling
Begin heating a skillet over medium high with a little oil. Once hot, add in the diced fennel bulb, season it with salt, and begin cooking this down until all the water is gone. Once that happens, the fennel’s going to start to brown and that’s when you can remove it from the pan to cool. We don’t want to add hot veggies into the filling.
To a food processor or mortar and pestle, add in 3 cloves of garlic, 3 sage leaves, the cooled cooked fennel, a large handful of parsley, those reserved fennel fronds, then a few hard herbs like rosemary and thyme. Go easy on the rosemary and thyme so the porchetta doesn’t taste too woody. Pulse this until nice and broken down, but it doesn’t need to be a baby food style paste.
Place your ground pork into a large bowl. Add your herb mix into the pork and then grate in a ton of parm. Basically until you get tired, but it’s probably about 10 grams or so. Zest in the lemon as well. Season this with salt and pepper, and add in the milk mixed with panko. Give this a nice mix with hands or a spoon if you prefer. All those herbs and the garlic are gonna go a long way to permeate the porchetta. You want this cohesive, but don’t overwork it or it will become more like sausage meat than a meatball. Set this pork mix aside. Also now is a great time to get your oven set to 300f. This is gonna go on a middle rack, so make sure there’s room.
Step 2: Fill Porchetta and Roast
Butterfly your pork belly so it's twice as wide and half as thick. Be sure to leave a hinge so the piece stays in tact. This gives you more surface area to spread the filling and more spirals for a nicer looking final roast. Season the inside layer with salt , and then smear on the herbed pork filling. Leave a little edge unfilled near the endpoint of where you’ll be rolling to. Half an inch uncovered is good. Begin rolling towards that uncovered edge. Once rolled, place it seem side down and grab a roll of butchers twine. You could do fancy trussing, but I like to just cut 5 pieces with a pair of scissors. I make them way too long so I don’t have to be precise, and it’s so much better that way. Start in the direct middle and tie that piece first. Do a double knot before locking it off. The double wrap keeps the piece in place better. From the middle, go to each end and tie those. Then go in between the middle and each end. Watch the video above for a full walkthrough.
Spread some olive oil over the outside to aid in browning and then season this whole thing with kosher salt. Rub it around and give it a really nice coating. Place this on a roasting tray, or over a sheet tray with a rack and just enough water in the try to keep any fat from burning. Place foil around the tray and then put this whole thing in the oven for around 3 hours. You want to make sure the tray isn’t burning, so check it halfway through.
At the 3 hour mark, it’s a good idea to just check if the meat is tender enough. Place a fork in and wiggle it around, if it feels tender, it’s good! If not, let it go for another half hour. Even though the meat is tender, the outside is going to not be brown enough, don’t worry, we’ll fix that in a second.
Step 3: Higher Temp Roast
Take the roast out of the oven and then turn the oven up to 400f convection, or 425f regular if your oven doesn’t have convection. Place the roast in uncovered and let it go until nice and browned on the fatty exterior. This is really going to depend on your oven so just keep an eye out. For me, this took 25 minutes. Golden brown is what you're looking for. The fatty exterior is rendered with a little bit of crunch. Give this ample time to rest, this has been in the oven for a really long time and you don’t want to end up with dry meat cause you cut into it to early. Now I know it’s missing the large puffy cracklin that a lot of porchetta recipes have, but this one is so easy and delicious that I don’t miss it at all. I don’t have to worry much about smoking out my oven with exploding skin, and the results are so insanely good that it’s worth justifying.
Also the secret best part about making porchetta is the leftover porchetta sandwich you get to make. Thinly slice the leftover slab, broil it until hot and crisp and then toss it on a bun with some arugula and sandwich sauce. I just mix mayo, calabrian chiles and the liquid from some pepperoncini. This is probably the best thing I eat all year long.
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