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. Porchetta is a whole baby pig, boned, stuffed and roasted 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 Mercatino is a small market.
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 an adaptation of a Tobie Puttock recipe published in New Idea a few years ago.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 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.
One roll of meat was really enough for 4 people and each roll was about 1.5 kg.
For the stuffing use a mixture of: fresh rosemary, sage sliced very finely (about 3 tablespoons of each) and 1-2ablespoons fennel seeds, 3-6 garlic cloves chopped finely. Add more or less of any of the above according to your personal preferences. pork belly, skin on or off salt and coarsely ground black pepper extra virgin olive oil

Below…. size of pig used for making Porchetta.