Description
Pork Porchetta is a savory, moist and flavorful pork belly stuffed with herbs like fennel, oregano, sage, pepper, garlic and other spices. Then, rolled & roasted until the fatty skin gets crispy and blisters or crackles. This classic Italian pork recipe is heavily salted with Greek Sea Salt Smoked in Beechwood. Recipe adapted from Serious eats.
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Ingredients
Units
Scale
- 1 whole boneless, rind-on pork belly, about 10-12 pounds
- 1 lb. ground pork (optional)
- The juice of one lime & one lemon
- 2 teaspoons ginger, grated
- 2 Tablespoons whole black peppercorns
- 3 Tablespoons whole fennel seed
- 3 teaspoons crushed red pepper
- 1 Tablespoon dry oregano. I love Dominican Oregano - This is the “real thing.”
- 3 Tablespoons finely chopped sage
- 12 cloves garlic, grated, then mashed in a pestle
- 4 Tablespoons (separated 2 & 2) sea salt. I use a combination of pure sea salt and Sea Salt Smoked in Beechwood
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
Instructions
- Place pork belly skin-side down on a large cutting board. Using a sharp chef's knife, score the flesh at an angle using strokes about 1-inch apart. Rotate knife 90 degrees and repeat to create a diamond pattern in the meat.
- Flip the belly skin side up and using a sharp pointed knife, poke the meat all-over. It will be tough, so be aggressive?.
- Squeeze the juice of the lime and lemon and rub all over the pork. Leave it for 10 minutes. Then pat dry before applying the seasoning.
- Toast peppercorns and fennel seed in a small skillet over medium-high heat until lightly browned and aromatic; about 2 minutes. Transfer to a spice grinder and grind until finely ground. Put in a separate bowl.
- Grate in a microplane the garlic and the ginger.
- Finely chop the sage. Keep it in a separate small bowl.
- Season pork liberally with the mixtures of pepper & fennel, crushed red pepper, chopped sage, grated ginger & garlic, dry oregano, and 2 Tablespoons of sea salt (I use Sea Salt Smoked in Beechwood).
- Salt at your discretion, but make sure you season heavily because it’s a lot of meat.
- If including ground pork later, save a little bit of the seasoning for that.
- Use your hands to rub the mixture deeply into the cracks and crevices in the meat.
- At this point you have two option:
- Recommended option: Place the seasoned pork belly skin side down and uncovered in the refrigerator for one or two days to allow skin to dry; pat occasionally with paper towel. Let the pork porchetta sit at room temperature for 2 hours before continuing to step 9.
- Second option: Continue with the remaining steps below.
- Season the ground pork VERY LIGHTLY with the same ingredients, and place on top of the pork belly
- Roll the belly lengthwise into a tight log. Cut 10 pieces of kitchen twine long enough to tie around the pork and lay them down in regular intervals along your cutting board, about 1-inch apart each. Lay rolled pork seam-side down on top of strings. Working from the outermost strings towards the center, tie up roast tightly.
- Combine 2 Tablespoons sea salt with 2 teaspoons baking powder. Rub mixture over entire surface of pork Porchetta. This is a key element to get a crispy and cracking skin.
- Preheat oven to 300°F and adjust the oven rack to the lower-middle position.
- If baking half the porchetta, you can use a V-rack in a roasting pan. So, you can baste with the dripping every half hour. Because I forget to do this process, I opted to use the below method
- If baking whole porchetta, use a baking sheet and a flat rack. If the whole pork belly is too long, cut it in half to be able to fit it in a tray pan and oven.
- Place roasting pan in oven and roast until internal temperature of pork reaches 160°F; about two hours.
- Increase oven temperature to 500°F and continue roasting until completely crisp and blistered skin; about 20 to 30 minutes longer.
- Tent with foil and allow to rest for 15 minutes. Slice with a serrated knife into 1-inch thick disks and serve.
Notes
You won’t need all the peppercorn-fennel mixture. So, be generous seasoning but be careful to not over season the pork belly.
Secret ingredient for crispy skin is baking powder
If you Freeze or Refrigerate: Wrap the rolled and tied pork tightly in plastic and refrigerate up to three days before cooking. If desired, Pork Porchetta can also be frozen at this point for future use.
Equipment Needed:
- Roasting pan with V-rack or rimmed baking sheet with metal rack
- spice grinder
- butcher's twine & scissors
- sharp knife
- Prep Time: 1 hours
- Cook Time: 2 hours 30 minutes
- Category: Dinner
- Method: roasting
- Cuisine: Italian
