Today marks the 1-year “launchiversary” of your favorite food blog: Mangia McCann. Does anyone even read this stuff that I write? I stopped looking at the page’s analytics after 3 months. It was kind of depressing. But, the whole reason I started the blog was not to make money (notice how there are no ads on the page?), but to share my love of cooking and hopefully inspire anyone who’ll listen to get out of their culinary comfort zone. I hope I have been successful in that regard; because, I’ve been completely successful in not making money from my efforts!
This week, I’ve decided to do a couple of challenging items: most involving baking for some odd reason. However, I did take time from challenging myself to focus on the sharing aspect of my endeavor. Like I’ve said before: knowledge and food are meant to be shared. So, I made porchetta over the weekend, let it cool, sliced it thinly and made some paninis and headed out into my neighborhood to give some friends some free samples and to thank them for supporting me along the way: whether asking about the blog, telling their friends, sharing my posts, lending a cookbook, sharing a needed ingredient on an emergency-basis or simply commenting on my posts asking when they can get a sample: every reaction, share, click, comment expands the reach of my posts, so thank you all.
Back to today’s dish: Porchetta. I’ve been reading about this for over a decade, been wanting to make it for at least a decade, and finally thought: it’s time. The anniversary is a good-enough reason; no need to wait for the holidays (where I always opt for traditional items and never make porchetta, anyway). The local supermarket had some pork belly the other week and I bought it to force myself into the idea. Then I bought a pork loin roast. The game was on. Porchetta, if you’re unaware, is an Italian pork roulade. If you have a large enough belly, you don’t need to stuff, but having that ring of perfectly rendered fat wrapped around a loin roast is quite fantastic. Traditionally, you serve with an Italian salsa verde. I opted to go sandwich style and I’ve been advised NOT to give out the panini recipe because: "this is THE sandwich at your future restaurant" from one and that I have “revolutionized the sandwich” by another...wow. So, uh, you’re on your own if you want to recreate the panini pic below. But, the recipe for the Porchetta can be found thereunder!
Porchetta
While you can totally roast this in your oven at 250 degrees (anywhere between 3-6 hours), traditionally, porchetta is made by roasting over a wood fire. While I didn’t go that far, I did employ my Weber Rotisserie Attachment and a smoke box.
5-6 lb pork belly
~3 lb Pork loin roast (not tenderloin)
~2oz Pine Nuts
10 garlic gloves
Fresh chopped Italian herbs: Parsley, Rosemary, Sage, and Thyme
Nutmeg
Orange
10 garlic gloves
Red pepper flakes
Fennel fronds or fennel seed
Kosher Salt and Black Pepper
Baking sheet, cooling rack, zester/grater, butcher twine
Optional equipment: grill with soaked wood chips, smoke box and rotisserie attachment
Unpackage and pat dry your pork belly. Mine (and probably yours) did not come with the full hide in-tact, this is ok. It won’t be as crispy, but we’ll get very, very close. Unpackage and dry your pork loin. Set both on a rack-lined baking sheet and roll the belly around the loin. If the loin extends out of the roll you will need to trim the loin slightly to fit.
Toast the pine nuts in a nonstick skillet over medium heat until golden and just spotty brown. Remove to a plate to cool.
Roughly chop the garlic and fresh herbs and set aside.
Place your pork belly skin-side down on a large cutting board. Using a sharp knife, score the meat in a crisscross pattern, about an inch deep.
Using a zester, grind on half of a nutmeg seed over the meat. Grind the orange peel moving over the meat as you zest. Sprinkle on the pine nuts and garlic, pressing them into the meat. Sprinkle on some red pepper flakes (about a tablespoon, add more if you like). Sprinkle on fennel fronds if you have, or use fennel seed. Season liberally with kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper. Sprinkle on the chopped herbs, giving one last press into the meat.
Season the loin with kosher salt and black pepper and place it on top of the prepared pork belly. Roll the belly around the loin snugly. Using a very sharp knife, make 1/4-inch deep slices lengthwise along the outside of the pork roll.
Then, using butcher twine, tie and secure the belly in about 2-inch intervals. Place the wrapped porchetta back onto the rack-lined baking sheet and place in the fridge to rest and dry for 12-36 hours.
When ready to cook, preheat your grill with all burners to high, grates and cooling rack removed, and place about 2 cups of soaked wood chips into your smoker box and place on a burner and preheat for 15-20 minutes. If you do not have a smoker box, fill a packet of aluminum foil with the chips and poke holes into the top-side of the foil packet.
While the grill preheats, remove the porchetta from the refrigerator and skewer the center of one open side of the roast, securing with the claws. Place the rotisserie into the motor and turn it on to rotate. Turn off all of the burners underneath the roast, keeping the one burner under the smoke box/packet on, but reduce the heat to medium. Close the cover of the grill.
Let the heat naturally dissipate and try to maintain a grill temperature around 250-300 degrees. Roast for about 3 hours. Open the grill lid, your meat should look golden brown, like this.
Check the temperature. When it reaches 160-165 degrees, turn on all of the burners to high heat, to darken the skin, and cook about 5 minutes. Using grill or oven gloves, remove the rotisserie arm and set on a cutting board, uncovered, for 30 minutes to rest.
Remove the pork from the rotisserie and slice thinly as needed. Serve with an Italian salsa verde. Let the remaining roast cool down completely and place in the fridge overnight. Thinly slice the remainder the next day and reserve for sandwiches.
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Copyright 2021, Brendan McCann, All Rights Reserved.
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