Porchetta Recipe: Home Cook’s Guide to Making Porchetta
Written by MasterClass
Last updated: Dec 15, 2024 • 4 min read
Porchetta is a labor of love, but once it’s been carefully assembled and roasted to perfection, you’ll be left with a mouthwatering pork dish that you can serve as a showstopping main course or use to make juicy Italian porchetta sandwiches.
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What Is Porchetta?
Porchetta is a traditional Italian meat dish consisting of a pork belly pounded thin, coated in an aromatic spice rub, rolled around a pork loin, and slow-roasted to produce rich, tender slices of meat with a golden brown, crispy skin. Enjoy this cylindrical pork roast as-is or layered atop ciabatta bread for the ultimate slow-roasted pork sandwich. Porchetta sandwiches are a common street food in Italy.
Porchetta, which translates to “little pig” in Italian, is such a hallmark of Italian cuisine that it has even been named an official prodotto agroalimentare tradizionale (traditional agricultural food product) by the Italian government.
Origins of Porchetta
Although historians are uncertain of the exact date and location of porchetta’s creation, the town of Ariccia, outside of Rome, has long claimed to be the birthplace of this popular Italian pork dish. Porchetta—which has been traced back to pre-Roman times and was a favorite dish of the famed Roman emperor, Niro—has been prepared by the Prisci Latin Priests of Ariccia for over 3,000 years to commemorate the founding of the Latin League.
Each year since 1950, Ariccia has hosted the Sagra della Porchetta di Ariccia, a festival promoting the village’s most famous export. Over the years, the popularity of porchetta has expanded to other regions of Italy. Other popular preparations of porchetta include the Porchetta Trevigiana from Treviso, which is made with young pig meat stuffed with wild fennel, garlic, and white wine, and roasted for seven hours; the rosemary and garlic-stuffed Porchetta Abruzzese from Abruzzo; and Umbrian Porchetta, which is stuffed with chopped entrails mixed with lard, wild fennel, and garlic.
3 Tips for Making Porchetta
Whether you’re an experienced Italian home cook or taking a crack at this specialty roast for the first time, these simple tips will help you make the most of your porchetta.
- 1. Play around with flavors. The rub applied to the pork skin prior to roasting can be adapted to fit your preferences. Feel free to substitute different spices, dried herbs, and aromatics depending on the ingredients you have on hand and your flavor preferences.
- 2. Add some hearty vegetables. Add some hearty vegetables, like par-boiled potatoes, onions, brussels sprouts, and winter squash to the base of the pan in the last hour of cooking. The vegetables will soak up the pork drippings for the perfect flavorful side to this meaty dish.
- 3. Store properly. While this rich dish is best consumed shortly after roasting, porchetta can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to three days. For a longer storage option, pre-slice the porchetta and freeze the slices in a freezer-proof container. When you’re ready to reheat, warm the sliced porchetta in a skillet with a small amount of oil, rather than popping it in the microwave
Porchetta Recipe
makes
prep time
51 hrtotal time
54 hr 30 mincook time
3 hr 30 minIngredients
- 1
Place the pork belly, skin side down, on a cutting board and cut ⅓-inch deep score marks in a checkerboard pattern across the meat.
- 2
Using a meat mallet, rolling pin, or wine bottle, pound the pork belly for 2 minutes, to flatten and tenderize the meat. Set the pork aside.
- 3
In a small skillet over medium heat, toast the fennel seeds until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- 4
Transfer the fennel seeds to a small bowl and allow them to cool to room temperature. Crush the fennel seeds using a pestle, spice grinder, or other blunt kitchen object.
- 5
Add the olive oil, minced garlic, thyme, rosemary, sage, red pepper flakes, orange zest, and black pepper to the bowl with the fennel seeds, and stir to combine.
- 6
With the pork belly skin side down, sprinkle the seasoning mixture over the scored pork belly, using your fingers to work the spices into the meat.
- 7
Place the pork loin in the center of the belly.
- 8
Roll the belly around the loin to create a cylindrical, log-like shape. Secure the roll by tying kitchen twine around the outside of the belly crosswise, tying the roll at each end and in the center.
- 9
Place the rolled pork belly onto a plate and place it in the refrigerator, uncovered. Allow the pork to chill overnight, or up to 2 days, to dry out the skin.
- 10
When you’re ready to cook the porchetta, remove it from the refrigerator and allow it to rest at room temperature for 1–2 hours.
- 11
Preheat the oven to 500 degrees Fahrenheit.
- 12
Transfer the porchetta to a rimmed baking sheet or roasting pan fitted with a wire rack, and season the pork all over with salt.
- 13
Place the baking sheet in the oven, and roast the pork for 30 minutes.
- 14
Reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees Fahrenheit, and continue roasting the porchetta, turning the meat occasionally, until the internal temperature of the thickest part of the pork reaches 160 degrees Fahrenheit, about 2–3 hours.
- 15
Remove the pan from the oven, and transfer the pork to a cutting board. Allow the porchetta to rest for 30 minutes before slicing it into 1-inch thick rounds and serving.
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