Italian Porchetta (Italian Roast Pork)

Italian Porchetta (Italian Roast Pork) | Chew Town Food Blog

It was only a matter of time before I brought you an Italian porchetta recipe – I’m just surprised it took me 4 years. It’s a prerequisite of any trip to Rome to ensure you try porchetta from a street vendor served piping hot and in a panino (bread roll). It is truly a flavour explosion with impossibly juicy meat combined with an aromatic fennel and garlic filling and a shattering crackling. When you couple that with the incredible sights of Historic Rome, the experience is other wordly.

Quite simply, porchetta is a large boneless suckling pig which is rolled with garlic and fennel (often with rosemary and other herbs, or even mince and sweetbreads in some places) and then roasted in a wood fired oven. While few of us have wood fired ovens at home (I don’t… but I will one day), attempting to roast a whole boneless suckling pig at home is slightly daunting, so I’ve taken the flavour profile of a curbside porchetta and used a much more managable 6kg pork shoulder which you’ll find much easier at home.

Italian Porchetta (Italian Roast Pork) | Chew Town Food Blog

Hearing I had been reminiscing about my Italian holidays and was thinking about making porchetta, my old friends at Murray Valley Pork sent me this 6kg boneless pork shoulder to use (they are quite literally my porky godmothers). A list of butchers who sell Murray Valley Pork products in Australia is included for you at the end of this post.

Now, a little note about a crisp pork crackling: Many of the tricks that people swear by to ensure they have crisp crackling is not necessary when you are roasting a cut of pork weighing in at 6kg. The length of time you need to cook such a large cut of meat will ensure the skin has enough time to crackle. That being said, there are still a few things though that I will always do to ensure success:

  • The day before cooking I pat the skin dry of all moisture, then place it on a rack skin side up and put in the fridge overnight so that the skin is dry.
  • Just before cooking I ensure that the skin is rubbed with olive oil and a generous amount of sea salt.
  • The first 20 minutes of cooking time is done at 220° Celsius (430° Fahrenheit) which gives the skin a blast of heat at the beginning to give your crackling a head start.

Fennel really is the star of a porchetta, but unlike most fennel recipes this one omits the fennel bulb altogether and uses fennel fronds, stalks and pollen – you can save the bulbs for a fennel and orange salad to accompany the porchetta if you like. You will need to buy fennel with the stalks and fronds attached so it is probably best to buy the fennel from a farmers market as the major supermarkets always remove these parts (much to my chagrin as fennel frond salt is the best thing ever). For the pollen, you can omit this if you can’t find it, or if in Australia you can buy it from Herbies Spices online.

Italian Porchetta (Italian Roast Pork) | Chew Town Food Blog

Italian Porchetta

Ingredients

  • 6kg pork shoulder, boned and rolled with rind on*
  • Sea salt flakes
  • Freshly ground pepper
  • 1 tablespoon fennel pollen (or 1 tablespoon fennel seeds if you can't find pollen)
  • Fresh fennel fronds from the top of two fennel bulbs
  • 1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes
  • 10 cloves garlic
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 10 tender fennel branches
  • 1 bottle dry white wine
  • 2 cups water

Directions

The day before you are wanting to cook the pork, unroll the shoulder and place rind side up on a large board. Pat the rind dry and score it at 2cm intervals diagonally ensuring you don't cut down to the flesh (or the juices of the pork will escape when cooking and it will dry out your pork).

Turn over and season the flesh with two handfuls of sea salt flakes and a generous amount of freshly ground pepper. Dot the 10 garlic cloves on the flesh, pushing them into the flesh where possible. Sprinkle all over with fennel pollen, dried chilli flakes and fennel fronds (in that order).

Gently and tightly re-roll the shoulder (noting that it will be harder to roll with the filling) and tie with butchers twine (or re-use the elastic twine if your pork came with it). Place on a rack, lightly cover with cling film, and place in your fridge overnight. The reason you are leaving it overnight is to ensure the skin dries out which makes it easier to achieve maximum crackly on your rind.

Remove the pork from the fridge two hours before you are ready to start cooking. You want the pork to come to room temperature as it relaxes the meat and will result in a more tender final product.

30 minutes before your pork goes into the oven, preheat it to 220° Celsius (430° Fahrenheit).

Once at room temperature, drizzle the olive oil on the pork 1 tablespoon at a time and massage it into the scoring. Then, taking 2-3 generous handfuls of sea salt flakes and press it into the rind ensuring you have a visible layer of salt on the rind (as per the photos above).Ensure you have a roasting tray with a roasting rack large enough for your pork. Cut your fennel branches in half, then lay them on the roasting rack making a bed for your pork, and transfer the pork to the tray. Into the bottom of the tray pour 2 cups wine and 1 cup water.

Place in the oven and bake at 220° Celsius (430° Fahrenheit) for 20 minutes (this blast of heat at the beginning with get your crackling off to the best possible start). After 20 minutes, turn down the oven temperature to 180° Celsius (350° Fahrenheit) and roast for 40 minutes per kilogram - for the 6 kg pork shoulder it will take 4 hours - turning it around every hour or so and adding the remaining wine and water halfway through.

Remove from oven and transfer the pork to a large board. Cover with aluminium foil and rest for 30 minutes before serving. To serve, cut off the twine and remove the crackling, breaking it up into pieces. Slice the pork in large rounds and serve with the pan juices (which are incredible).

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Italian Porchetta (Italian Roast Pork) | Chew Town Food Blog

Italian Porchetta (Italian Roast Pork) | Chew Town Food Blog

Chew Town was not paid to develop this recipe, but was gifted the Pork  from Murray Valley Pork with thanks. Visit here for a list of Murray Valley Pork butchers. To read Chew Town’s disclosure policy please visit the About page.

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Comments

  1. Josie says

    I am salivating just looking at the close up of the finished pork. Roast pork brings back memories of family meals and lots of chatter.

  7. Renee says

    I sure wish your site had a taste option!! Oh my, this looks so amazing! My husband would love it! Pinning it, because I certainly want to make this is the near future.

  13. Gourmet Getaways says

    OMG, showed the photos to some friends and they went…”Whoa!!!” Hehe, will have to do this really soon. Thanks for sharing xx It’s never too late 🙂

    Julie & Alesah
    Gourmet Getaways xx

  19. Steve Turner says

    Does the 40 minutes per kilo cooking time include the first 20 minutes for crackling blast, or is it 40 p kilo following the 20 minutes?

  23. Shayne says

    Looks amazing, giving it a crack for Christmas lunch
    Fingers crossed
    #goldcoastpizzaovens

  24. Noellia says

    Hi Amanda, thanks for the recipe. I am going to use a combo of this plus another recipe I found but I just want to know about the stuffing. What’s the difference if you stuff it overnight as opposed to a few hours before roasting? Does it change the flavour profile? I have had my pork loin/belly in the fridge already overnight to dry the skin so I’m not too worried about that part. It would be heaps easier to season and stuff the night before. I am making a pork mince stuffing for mine. Any suggestions will help. Thanks!

  25. Adam the Italian says

    Can confirm this is the best recipe I have found online and I have high standards being italian,.

    It is easy to digest, brilliantly written and the first and only time I have made this resulted in WOW from all around. I am doing this again this weekend, this time using ethically sourced pigs as in Italy they say the stress an animal has in its life turns out in the flavour of the meat.

    Can I ask 1 question? The proper traditional way is to cook it in a wood fire for 10-12 hours.

    Have you tried doing this recipe except leaving it in the oven for 10-12 hours? Has anyone tried this?

    • Amanda Michetti says

      Hi Adam, I haven’t tried cooking it any longer than the recipe. I suspect it could be done, but you would need to drop the temp significantly to compensate such a long cook time.

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