This recipe is not quite Porchetta, as a traditional Porchetta is a whole baby pig that has been boned, stuffed and roasted.
Porchetta is common in certain parts of central Italy and those of you who have travelled to Umbria, Lazio, Abruzzo and the Marche may have had slices of Porchetta in a panino or between two slices of rustic bread and it is common fare in regional fairs or markets; it is eaten hot or cold.
In Italian, a fair is called a Fiera and a market is a Mercato or a Mercatino, that is a small market.
Porchetta sliced
But this recipe uses belly pork and although it called Porchetta, you now know that it is not, except for the stuffing. You would also know that there are always many variations in all Italian regional cooking, but rosemary, garlic and fennel are a must in this recipe.
I did not cook the following Porchetta and it is not my recipe, it is a Tobie Puttock recipe published in a New Idea magazine. The cook and host was my brother. The photographs are mine and hopefully they will help to explain the method of preparing the belly pork for cooking.
In the original recipe the skin is left on and honey is rubbed over the meat once it is out of the oven (I really cannot imagine why you would want to do this, but go ahead if you wish). My host and brother removed the skin and cooked the meat on a roasting rack, this would also be my preference, as I do not like too much fat.
Placing the herbs under the crackling, then rolling it and tying it with string
One roll of meat was really enough for 4 people and weighed 1.5 kg.
Below it the ideal size of a piglet used for making a real Porchetta.
Roast baby pig as presented in a Melbourne restaurant
The recipe below is yet another adaptation of the original Tobie Puttock recipe called Porchetta that was published in the New Idea magazine, but was later published in a Delicious Magazine.
I cannot supply dates because I don’t have them, but this updated recipe in Delicious is better than the original and is called Porchetta with Salsa Verde.
But sorry Tobie, salsa verde is not something I would add to a serve of Porchetta as it competes with the flavours of the stuffing that are the highlight of the dish. For that amount of meat, I would use double the amount of herbs and reduce the amount of garlic. And make sure that they are fresh herbs.
And as mentioned before, NO Honey!
Porchetta with Salsa verde
Ingredients
4-5kg piece pork belly*, boned, skin and excess fat removed, skin reserved (ask your butcher to do this for you)
1/2 cup sage leaves, roughly chopped
1/2 cup rosemary leaves, roughly chopped
1 tbs fennel seeds
6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tbs olive oil
5 tbs (100ml) good-quality honey
salsa verde (makes about 1 cup)
2 garlic cloves, fi nely chopped
3-6 anchovies
1 tbs salted capers, rinsed, roughly chopped
Small handful of flat-leaf parsley leaves
Small handful of basil leaves
5 mint leaves, sliced
Finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
Extra virgin olive oil
method
Preheat the oven to 250˚C and oil a large roasting pan. Lay the pork belly flat on a work surface. Sprinkle with 2 tsp coarse sea salt and 2 tbs freshly ground black pepper, then massage the seasoning into the meat. Stand for 5 minutes, then sprinkle the meat with the sage, rosemary, fennel seeds and garlic. Starting from one long side, roll up the pork firmly. Wrap the roll in the reserved pork skin, so the ends meet under the roll. Use kitchen string to tie first around the centre, then 2cm from each end. Add a few more ties along the roll to secure well. Massage the olive oil into the skin, followed by 2 tsp coarse sea salt and 2 tbs black pepper.
Place the pork in the roasting pan and roast for 10 minutes, then turn and roast for a further 15 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 140°C, cover pan with foil and roast for 3 hours or until the meat is meltingly tender.
Maialino Arrosto and Porchetta – Roast Suckling Pig
Maialino arrosto is simply roasted piglet, while porchetta refers to a particular Italian tradition of seasoning and roasting pork. The two are closely related, but they are not quite the same thing.
Maialino arrosto and porchetta – what is the difference?
Maialino di latte is a suckling piglet, still young enough to be feeding on its mother’s milk. Roasted whole, it becomes maialino arrosto, prized for its tender meat and crisp, golden skin.
Porchetta, on the other hand, is particularly associated with Lazio and the town of Ariccia, south of Rome. Traditionally, a young pig is carefully boned, generously seasoned inside with salt, garlic, rosemary and other herbs, then closed or rolled and slowly roasted. The result is succulent, highly seasoned pork encased in crisp skin.
Today, smaller versions of porchetta are commonly made from boned cuts of pork, rolled around their seasoning and roasted. These are much more practical for the domestic kitchen.
Porchetta and the tradition of Ariccia
Cooking a whole pig is associated with celebrations and festivals in many parts of Italy, but Ariccia is especially famous for its porchetta. There it has long been sold at markets, festivals and from street stalls, sliced generously and often eaten simply between pieces of bread.
The seasonings vary according to region and local tradition. Rosemary and garlic are strongly associated with Roman and Laziale versions, while wild fennel or fennel seeds are characteristic elsewhere.
Similar traditions are found throughout Italy. In Sardinia, for example, roast suckling pig is known as porceddu or porcheddu and may be flavoured with aromatic myrtle. Lemon zest, rosemary, garlic and fennel are other flavours that marry particularly well with pork.
A celebratory roast
The maialino di latte in these photographs—and another piglet—was cooked by a chef at Libertine, then a French restaurant in North Melbourne. It was one of the courses at a particularly festive farewell lunch for friends who were going overseas for six months. The occasion also marked their twentieth wedding anniversary.
A whole piglet requires a substantial oven. Traditionally, in some rural Italian communities, families could take large roasts to the local baker’s wood-fired oven, particularly on days when the oven was not being used for bread.
Some cooks bone the piglet before roasting, which makes it easier to stuff and later to carve. Stuffings can be elaborate, incorporating minced pork and sometimes offal, or very simple, consisting mainly of herbs, garlic and spices.
For the recipe below, the flavours traditionally associated with porchetta—rosemary, garlic and fennel—are rubbed inside the piglet and into the skin.
Preparing a whole suckling pig… if you are up to it.
Maialino arrosto is not something I cook, but it is a dish I know well. In Australia, whole roast pig or porchetta has also become part of the celebratory table for some Italian families, particularly for Christmas, New Year and other large family gatherings.
If you intend to cook a whole piglet in a domestic oven, there is one very practical consideration: measure your oven before you buy the piglet.
Begin preparations the day before cooking. Leaving the piglet with its aromatic seasoning overnight allows the flavours to penetrate the meat, while keeping the outer skin as dry as possible helps produce good crackling.
Cooking time will depend on the size of the piglet and your oven, so use the timing below as a guide rather than relying on it alone.
Ingredients
1 small suckling pig, cleaned
Extra virgin olive oil, approximately 1 cup, for rubbing and basting
Dry white wine or water, approximately 2 cups
For the herb mixture
About 1 cup fresh rosemary leaves, finely chopped
3–4 tablespoons fennel seeds, lightly crushed
6–10 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
A generous amount of salt
Freshly ground black pepper
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
Method
Make sure the cavity of the piglet is thoroughly clean and that the organs have been removed.
Combine the rosemary, fennel seeds, garlic, salt, pepper and olive oil to make a fragrant paste.
Make several small slashes in the skin, including over the shoulders and hips. Rub some of the herb mixture into the slashes and spread the remainder generously around the inside cavity.
Place the piglet on a wire rack over a tray and refrigerate overnight, uncovered if practical or loosely covered without trapping moisture against the skin. The drier the skin, the better your chances of achieving crisp crackling.
The following day, remove the piglet from the refrigerator early enough to take some of the chill from it before roasting.
Preheat the oven to 220°C.
Place the piglet belly-down in a lightly oiled roasting pan, positioning the legs close to the body and securing them with kitchen string if necessary. Wrap the ears and tail loosely in foil to prevent them from burning.
Pour about a cup of white wine into the bottom of the roasting pan. Rub the skin with olive oil and season generously with salt.
Roast at 220°C for about 30 minutes, then reduce the oven to 200°C and continue roasting. As a broad guide, allow approximately one hour per kilogram, but the actual cooking time will depend on the size and shape of the piglet and the characteristics of your oven.
Turn the roasting pan every 30 minutes or so to encourage even cooking, but avoid turning the piglet itself. Baste lightly and replenish the wine or water in the bottom of the pan when necessary.
During the final 30 minutes, increase the temperature to 210–220°C to encourage crisp, golden skin. Remove the foil from the ears and tail towards the end so that they can brown without burning.
The pork should be thoroughly cooked and the juices should run clear. For greater certainty, especially with a large whole animal, check the thickest parts with a meat thermometer rather than relying on cooking time alone.
Remove the piglet from the oven and allow it to rest for 20–30 minutes before carving.
Meanwhile, deglaze the roasting pan with a little additional wine or water, scraping up the caramelised juices to make a simple sughetto.
Carve the maialino arrosto and serve with the sughetto.
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In Adelaide I attended a Tasting Australia event called Mondo Di Carne, held at Rosa Matto’s cooking school – Rosa has been the queen of Italian cooking in Adelaide for many years.
Vincenzo Garreffa is a famous butcher from Western Australia and Mondo Di Carne is the name of his business. Vincenzo boned it and stuffed it with three whole pork fillets (it had to be flesh as tender as the piglet), blanched almonds and a few slices of pork liver. Salt, pepper, extra virgin olive oil and rosemary are a must. We all squirmed but we all ate some and enjoyed it.
