Italian Porchetta
Quite simply, porchetta is a large boneless suckling pig which is rolled with garlic and fennel and then roasted in a wood-fired oven. While few of us have wood-fired ovens at home, 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 manageable 6kg pork shoulder which you’ll find much easier at home.
Fennel really is the star of a porchetta, but unlike most fennel recipes, this one omits the fennel bulb altogether and uses fennel fronds and stalks to sit the porchetta on. You can save the bulbs for a fennel and orange salad to accompany the meal. You'll need to buy fennel with the stalks and fronds attached, so it is probably best to buy from a market or local grocer if your supermarket removes these parts.
Ingredients 9
6 kg pork shoulder, boned and rolled, rind on
sea salt flakes
pepper, freshly ground
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
10 cloves garlic, peeled
3 fennel bulbs, with stems and fronds attached
1 bottle dry white wine
2 cups water
olive oil
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Method 8
The day before you are wanting to cook the , 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 big handfuls of sea salt flakes and a generous amount of freshly ground pepper. Dot the 10 on the flesh, pushing them into the flesh where possible. Sprinkle all over with and fennel fronds.
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 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. Ensure you have a roasting tray with a roasting rack large enough for your pork. Cut your fennel stalks 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 .
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 and halfway through.
Remove from oven and transfer the 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).
Amanda Michetti's tips
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.
