Porchetta Roasted Cured Pork Imported from Italy

Porchetta Roasted Cured Pork is a savory, fatty, and moist boneless pork roast of Italian culinary tradition. The carcass is deboned, arranged carefully stuffed with liver, wild fennel, all fat, and skin still on a spit, and/or roasted, traditionally over wood for at least 8 hours.

Customarily, Porchetta is heavily salted in addition to being filled with garlic, rosemary, fennel, or other herbs, often wild.

Nowadays, Porchetta has been selected by the Italian Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policy as a "Prodotto Agroalimentare Tradizionale," (literally “traditional agricultural-food product”,) one of the selected few placed in a list of traditional Italian foods held to have cultural relevance.

Italian Origins

Although popular in the whole country, porchetta originated in central Italy, with Ariccia, in the Province of Rome, being the town most closely associated with it. Elsewhere, it is considered a celebratory dish. Across Italy, porchetta is usually sold by pitchmen with their typically white-painted vans, especially during public displays or holidays, and it can be served in a Panino. It's a common street food in Rome and Lazio served as a filling for Pizza Bianca. It is also eaten as a meat dish in many households or as part of a picnic.

Popularity

Porchetta is one of the two iconic culinary products of the Lazio region, the other being the sheep cheese pecorino romano. Porchetta Roasted Cured Pork is also common in Abruzzo. Porchetta Abruzzese is generally slow roasted with rosemary, garlic, and pepper. Porchetta from Umbria is stuffed with the pig's chopped entrails mixed with lard, garlic, salt and plenty of pepper and wild fennel.

Porchetta trevigiana (from Treviso) was developed in 1919. In it, a pig is slaughtered when one year old, and then its meat is stuffed with salt, pepper, wild fennel, garlic, and white wine. It is then roasted inside an oven for seven hours at 90 °C (194 °F). The porchetta is today a popular dish in Venetian cuisine.

The dish is also a staple of Sardinian cuisine. There it is known as "porceddu" and is roasted over juniper and myrtle wood fires.

Sample Recipe: Homemade Italian Porchetta Roasted Cured Pork

YIELD: Makes 12-15 servings

INGREDIENTS

1 5-6-pound piece fresh pork belly, skin on
1 (trimmed) 2-3-pound boneless, center-cut pork loin
3 tablespoons fennel seeds
2 tablespoons crushed red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons minced fresh sage
1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary
3 garlic cloves, minced
Kosher salt (to taste)
1/2 orange, seeded, thinly sliced

PREPARATION

Put belly skin side down; arrange loin in the center. Carefully roll belly around the loin so that the short ends of the belly meet. If any of the belly or loin overhangs, scrape the excess meat. Unroll; then, set loin aside.
Toast fennel seeds and red pepper flakes in a small skillet over medium heat. Do it for about 1 minute, or until fragrant. Remove skillet from heat. Place spices into a bowl and let cool. Finely grind spices in a spice. Once done, transfer to a small bowl, along with the sage, rosemary, and garlic. Set the fennel mixture aside.
Assemble porchetta according to steps 1-5.

To assemble:

Set belly skin side down. Using a knife, score the belly flesh in a checkerboard pattern 1/3" deep so roast will cook evenly.
Flip belly skin side up. Using a paring knife, poke dozens of ⅛ inch-deep holes through the skin all over the belly. Don't be gentle! Keep poking.
Using the jagged edge of a meat mallet, pound skin all over for 3 minutes to tenderize, which will help make skin crispy when roasted.
Turn belly and generously salt both it and loin; rub both with fennel mixture. Arrange loin down the middle of the belly. Top with orange slices.
Roll belly around loin; tie crosswise with kitchen twine at 1/2" intervals. Trim twine. Transfer roast to a wire rack set in a rimmed baking sheet.

Refrigerate roast, uncovered, for 1-2 days to allow skin to air-dry; pat occasionally with paper towels.
Let the Porchetta sit at room temperature for 2 hours. Preheat oven to 500°F. Season porchetta with salt. Roast on rack in baking sheet, turning once, for 40 minutes. Reduce heat to 300°F and continue roasting, rotating the pan and turning porchetta occasionally, until an instant-read thermometer inserted into center of meat registers 145°F, 1 1/2-2 hours more. If the skin is not yet deep brown and crisp, increase heat to 500°F and roast for 10 minutes more. Let rest for 30 minutes. Using a serrated knife, slice into 1/2" rounds.

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size: oz (85 grams)

Amount Per Serving

Calories from Fat 286 Calories 342

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 32.0 grams 49%

Saturated Fat 11.0 grams 55%

Trans Fat 00.0 grams

Cholesterol 61.0 milligrams 20%

Sodium 102.0 milligrams 04%

Potassium 215.0 milligrams 06%

Total Carbohydrate 00.9 grams 00%

Dietary Fiber 00.4 grams 02%

Sugars 00.2 grams

Protein 12.0 grams

Vitamin A 03%

Vitamin C 03%

Calcium 02%

Iron 03%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Porchetta is a famous and high-class gourmet food that emerged in Italy. Since the Middle Ages Porchetta is a savory, fatty, and moist boneless pork roast of Italian culinary tradition. The body of the pig is gutted, deboned and arranged carefully with layers of stuffing, meat, fat, and skin, then rolled and roasted traditionally over wood. Porchetta is usually heavily salted in addition to being stuffed with garlic, rosemary, fennel, or other often wild herbs.

10 pound (4.5 kilograms) - WEIGHT APPROXIMATES

Ingredients: Pork, salt, sugar, flavors (onion, garlic, yeast extracts), spices, autolyzed yeast extract, sodium ascorbate, sodium nitrite

Packaging: Vacuum-sealed Plastic

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